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Presented   by~Y^v-(ScS\6\e.'r\^'~?c7^r 

BV  4501  .B37  1887 
Batchelder,  James  Locke. 
The  Christ  in  life 


■-xa-^ 


-7 


@!c,  7./ 


THE 


CHRIST  IN  LIFE 


BY 


J.    L.    BATCHELDER. 


— John  1:4.. 
Edv  8e  iv  rtp  <pioT).  Tre^cTrarcy/zev,  w^  Aurdq  iffriv  iv  tu)  <piorl^ 
xiHvwvtav    k'^ofxev    fier     dXXrjXwv,    xai   to  aC/xa  ^Irjffou   XpiffTou 
TOO  Tloo  Auvou  xa^api^sc  ijixaq  dizo  Ttdffrjq  d/xapTtaq. 

— /  John  i:y. 


CHICAGO: 

THE    AUTHOK,     PUBLISHEB, 

817  Washington  Boulevard 

1887. 


Tt^  nya-nwvri  '^fia<;  xai  kooffavrt  ^fin^  nTZo  rwv  dfiapriwv  rjfxib^ 
iv  Tw  (U/jiari  AuTou. — /fcv.  i:j. 


THIS  VOLUME, 

WITH     ITS     PREDECESSOR, 

Vera  irro  Divitiis, 

FOR 

MY    CHILDREN 

AND 

children's   children. 


Copyright, 
BY    THE    AUTHOR, 

1887. 


CONTEE^TS. 


Title 

Dedication ii 

Table  of  Chapters '. 

Prolegomena iv 

Chapter  I — The  Ministry  of  Reconciliation 17 

"        II — The  Creed  in  the  Deed 79 

"      III — No  Contrition — no  Remission 139 

"       IV — The  Christ  of  Sympathy 173 

"        V — The  Anti-Christ  in  Self 241 

"       VI — The  Individual  and  the  Society 321 

"     VII — The  Possible  in  Christian  Unity 373 

"  VIII — The  Ministry  of  Women 410 

"       IX — The  Scripture  and  the  Print 432 

The  Light  of  Life 447 


VUl  riiOLEGOMENA. 

will  throne  belief  in  the  soul.  Truth  has  always  thus 
first  been  tested,  then  espoused.'  These  illustrious 
l)liilosopliers,  scientists,  and  tliinkers,  notmth stand- 
ing their  hypotheses  unverified  and  generalizations 
incomplete,  some  of  which  conllict  with  Scriptural 
statement,  have  done  incalculable  service  in  the  re- 
moval of  rubbish  from  intellectual  progress;  in  the 
destruction  of  idols  of  culture  or  tradition ;  in  the  ex- 
posure of  philosophical  and  theological  shams;  in  the 
application  of  rigid  analysis  to  discussion;  in  the 
elimination  of  truth  from  error;  in  the  exaction  of 
clear  conception  and  of  precision  in  statement.  In 
due  time,  deflected  thought  from  the  rectilinear  will 
be  righted.  "The  pendulum,  as  it  oscillates  from 
end  to  end,  ever  passes  over  its  center  while  it  moves 
the  hand  of  time."  ^  No  mind  can  resist  the  witness 
of  its  own  consciousness.  The  Almighty  in  His 
spiritual  creations,  as  in  His  material,  cannot  be  de- 
throned. He  is  evidenced  in  the  "Naiura  naiurans, " 
as  in  the  "Nafiwa  naturaia" — in  "nature  producing," 
as  in  "nature  produced."  ^  Whether  bare  intellect  is 
predisposed  to  mathematical  or  abstracting  processes, 
the  soul  =  mind  +  heart  -will  not  be  satisfied  for  wor- 
ship with  an  ic" — symbol  of  the  Unknowable  raised  to 
infinity,  for  a  god  or  a  fetish;  or-  if  emotion  sensuous 

1.  In  the  original  word  ffxinruixai^  from  which  the  English 
skeptic  is  derived,  is  involved  look,  scrutiny,  thought,  question  in 
which  there  is  doubt. 

A  history  of  doubters  and  free-thinkers  is,  in  fact,  the  history  of 
human  enlightenment.  Every  advance  in  thought  or  knowledge, 
has  owed  its  inception  and  impulse  to  inquiring  doubt. — Evenings 
•with  Skeptics. — yoh7i  Oxucn. 

2.  Faith  aiid  Philosopliy.— H.  B.  Smith.         3.     Spinoza. 


PROLEGOMENA.  IX 

and  imagination  earthy  dominate,  with  a  woman  of 
the  age  of  thirty  having  her  son  in  her  arms — symbol 
of  the  God  Incarnate  in  Humanity,  spelt  with  a  big 
H/  As  the  priests  of  such  religion  are  disappointed 
with  the  small  progress  it  has  made  after  the  zeal  of 
a  century,  they  might  profit  by  the  suggestion  which 
it  is  said  Talleyrand  made  to  one  of  their  apostles — 
La  Eeveillere  Lepeaux — "to  try,  at  least,  the  experi- 
ment of  being  crucified,  and  of  rising  again  on  the 
third  day." ' 

Let  philosophy  move  on,  circularly  as  it  has,  and 
Natural  Science,  linearly  as  it  must,  if  it  will  be  an 
honest  reporter  of  facts  in  investigation; — truth  never 
will  be  shaken,  but  be  thereby  reinforced.  Every 
soul,  if  it  will  have  measure  of  peace,  rest,  hope, 
must  get  on  to  the  rock  of  this  recognition  of  God  in 
its  own  consciousness, —  amply  revealed  through 
matter  and  spirit,  the  Deific  Father.  This  realized, 
all  other  essential  beliefs  will  succeed.  Unacquired 
— to  use  the  Socratic  symbol — the  soul  will  be  driven 
over  the  ocean  of  being  upon  a  raft,  rudderless,  and 
without  compass  or  pole-star  to  guide  it  on  its  per- 
ilous way.  "  Once  really  adopt  the  conception  of  an 
ever  present  God,  without  whom  not  a  sparrow  falls 

I.    Discuss,  bet.  Spencer  and  Harrison. 

God  is  not  a  mere  anima  mundi^  nor  the  totality  of  tlie 
forces  of  the  universe,  nor  an  abstraction  of  the  mind,  like  Hu- 
manity with  a  big  H,  but  a  Person  in  the  most  transcendent  sense 
of  the  term,  and  as  the  Person  who  put  personality  into  us. —  W. 
S.  Lilly. — Ancient  and  Modern  Thought. 

The  personality  of  God  is  the  personality  of  man  freed  from  all 
the  conditions  and  limitations  of  Nature. — Fetierbach. 

2      W.  S.  Lilly. 


X  PROLEGOMENA. 

to  the  ground;  and  it  becomes  self-evident,  that  the 
law  of  gravitation  is  but  an  expression  of  a  particular 
mode  of  divine  action.  And  what  is  thus  true  of  one 
law  is  true  of  all  laws."  ' 

As  to  the  revelation  of  other  truth  within  or  with- 
out, specially  prepared  for  the  nutriment  and  invig- 
oration  of  the  mind  and  heart,  man's  higher  spiritual 
nature,  and  to  refine  him  for  the  celestial  life;  it  is 
unquestionable,  that  from  his  creation,  there  ever 
must  have  been  sufficient  for  his  enlightenment  and 
welfare,  according  to  necessities  and  capacities  to  re- 
ceive at  different  periods  in  his  history, — even  when, 
from  the  anthropoid  ape  by  continuous  evolution  or 
by  special  leap,  he  stood  forth  o  hOpojizoq — the  erect 
and  "the  looker-ui:)."  ^  The  earthly  parent  under- 
stands, that  it  is  not  wise  or  helping  to  communicate 
to  the  child,  what  he  would  reveal  in  advanced  stages 
of  his  being.  Jesus  reserved  from  His  confidences 
with  His  disciples,  much  that  was  weighty  on  account 
of  their  inability,  their  unpreparedness  to  receive. 
It  doubtless  can  be  correctly  averred,  that  no  human 
being  has  lived  in  want  of  light  upon  his  spiritual 
state  and  destiny,  his  relations  to  his  Maker  and  his 
fellows,  which,  if  improved,  would  have  been  ad- 
equate for  his  temporal  and  eternal  welfare.  It  has 
been,  not  so  much  for  want  of  light,  that  men  have 
necessarily  gone  to  ruin,  as  in  their  failure  to  im- 
prove what  they  had.  The  disastrous  consequences 
of  such  neglect,  inevitably  falling  upon  them  in  due 
time,  will  be  the  "  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  living 

1.  Quoted  bj  John  Fiske. 

2.  Greek  etymologists  derive  the  word  from  6  tlvw  adpibv. 


PROLEGOMENA.  XI 

God" — the  statutory  penalty,  "a  fearful  thing."  Few 
or  many  stripes  will  be  their  portion,  according  to 
their  light  and  dereliction  in  improving  it. 

In  all  the  major  or  the  minor  religions  of  earth,  as 
their  items  of  belief  have  come  specified  to  us,  it  is 
evident,  that  they  comprise  enough  for  the  highest 
good  of  those  who  profess  them,  if  assiduously  put 
into  practice.  If  carefully,  honestly,  conscientiously 
considered,  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  is  fully  as 
much  neglect  generally  to  put  into  practice,  seriatim^ 
the  various  items  of  Christian  belief  by  its  adherents, 
as  there  is  among  the  devotees  of  any  of  the  present 
ethnic  religions  to  embody  theirs.  It  can  be  without 
disparagement  of  the  surpassing  tenets  of  Christian- 
ity affirmed,  and  it  is  with  solemnity  believed,  that 
the  prospects  of  ultimate  safety,  if  not  of  positive 
peace,  rest  and  enjoyment  in  the  life  beyond,  are  as 
hopeful  to  the  average  heathen  as  to  the  average  citi- 
zen, if  not  the  average  church  member  in  Christ- 
endom. Certainly  all  are  in  great  peril,  whether 
they  have  received  little  or  much  light;  ultimate  des- 
tiny will  be  determined  by  the  improvement  of  that 
received;  if  they  have  been  beneficiaries  of  "line 
upon  line,"  "precept  upon  precept,"  during  the  de- 
cades of  their  history,  yet  still  have  resisted  its  testi- 
mony and  their  own  convictions,  "until  there  was  no 
remedy,"  fearful  will  be  their  condemnation. 
"Europe,"  said  Spencer  or  a  Spencerian,  "contains  a 
hundred  millions  of  pagans  masquerading  as  Christ- 
ians." Of  how  many  millions  more  in  all  Christendom 
this  might  be  truthfully  said!  This  is  a  solemn  af- 
firmation, yet  must  needs  be  made,  and  not  inconsid- 


Xll  PROLEGOMENA. 

erately,  as  must  be  evident  to  every  vigilant,  thought- 
ful observer,  and  as  will  be  hereafter  in  these  pages 
attempted  to  be  shown. 

Thus,  then,  it  is  evident,  that  truth  enough  and 
adequate  for  well-being  has  been  already  revealed. 
It  has  BO  cumulated,  tliat  the  heavens  of  the  sojourner 
blaze  with  it.  He  that  runs  in  the  hurry-scurry  of 
life  may  read.  True,  light  upon  many  profound 
mysteries  is  desirable.  Sometime  in  the  eternal  ages 
it  will  come;  not  Now,  not  Here.     Let  us  wait! 

Conduct,  illustration,  practice — acting,  doing  as  its 
root-origin  indicates  —  is  what  is  needed  and  de- 
manded, being,  as  it  should  be,  and  as  the  English 
essayist  has  declared,  three-fourths  of  life,  without 
which  abstract  creed  is  but  sounding  brass  or  a  clang- 
ing cymbal.  If  professing  Christians  would  have 
power  with  God  and  men,  with  unbelievers  whom 
they  touch  in  life,  with  the  heathen  at  home  or 
abroad,  they  must  gird  themselves  to  the  duty  of 
cleansing  their  own  hearts  and  lives — "awaking  to 
righteousness  and  sinning  not" — and  of  cleansing 
also  the  ecclesiastical  bodies  with  which  they  affiliate, 
since  they  are  the  avowed  lamp-stands  or  temples  of 
light  in  enveloping  darkness; — if  therefore  the  light 
in  them  be  darkness,  what  great  darkness!  Matth. 
vi:23;— or  their  assumption,  of  being  "the  salt  of  the 
earth"  will  become  a  stench  to  the  nostrils  of  all 
right-minded  and  reasonable,  and  will  be  spewed 
upon  by  the  di-egs  of  humanity,  as  not  only  without 
conserving  savor,  but  even  offensive  to  them  in  their 
degi-adation.  Such  will,  as  it  ought,  be  cast  out  and 
trodden  under  foot  of  men.     Matth.  v:13.      Their 


PBOLEGOMENA.  Xlll 

avowed  mission  to  evangelize  others  will  otherwise, 
prove  a  failure;  God  will  raise  up  others,  perhaps 
among  the  hitherto  idolatrous  nations,  by  whom  He 
will  be  honored, — His  truth ,  through  His  glorious  and 
glorified  Son  be  taken  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  As 
were  not  accepted  Hebrew  offering  and  sacrifice  for 
"a  broken  spirit,"  so  worship  of  a  Christian  creed,  or 
Sabbath  service  in  gorgeously  constructed  temples 
will  not  be  received  by  God  as  substitutes  for  "a 
broken  and  contrite  heart " — for  pure  and  undefiled 
religion.  Single-breasted  black  coats  with  superflu- 
ous buttons  close  to  the  throat;  white  chokers  to  the 
chin;  clerical  air  and  gait,  with  D.  D.  or  Ph.  D.  ap- 
pended; bands  or  stoles,  cassocks  or  surplices  doffed 
or  donned ;  bows  and  genuflexions ;  processions 
and  recessions  in  or  around  a  meeting  house  or  a  ca- 
thedral; intoned  rituals  and  music;  rhetorical  mouth- 
ings  of  Scripture  and  hymns;  oratorical  attitudes  and 
saintly  expression; — all  such  masquerade  and  milli- 
nery of  service  will  not  save  or  impress  men  of  this  un- 
toward generation.  The  socialistic  Dragon  shoots  up 
its  hydra  head.  Its  communistic,  anarchistic,  nihil- 
istic brood  thrust  out  their  fiery  tongues.  The  spir- 
itual John  Baptist  is  everywhere  in  English  or  German 
speaking  Christendom,  a-crying :  Away  with  your 
ecclesiastical,  clerical,  religious  shams!  Stop  your 
masquerading!  Get  down  ye  Christian  posture-mas- 
ters- to  the  bed-rock  of  reality!  No  longer  proffer  to 
the  spiritually  hungry  the  chaff  of  religious  preten- 
sion! Asking  bread  from  you,  will  you  proffer  stone? 
The  flail  is  uplifted,  and  the  ax  laid  at  the  foot  of  the 
tree.     Pure  religion  and  undefiled  before  our  God 


XIV  PKOLEGOMEN.L 

aud  Father  ,is  doing  good — going  ahoni  io  do  U — not 
an  abstract  creed  aud  worship  of  it,  but  concrete  em- 
bodiment in  life  of  all  that  is  good  and  wholesome 
in  it.  The  trumpet-tongued  voice  from  the  Heavens 
to  all  is: 

Creature  all  grandeur,  son  of  truth  and  light, 

Up  from  the  dust!  the  last  great  day  is  bright; 

Bright  on  the  Holy  Mountain  'round  the  throne; 

Bright  -where  in  borrowed  light  the  far  stars  shone — 

Look  down  !  the  Depths  are  bright!  and  hear  their  cry  : 

"Light!  light!"     Look  up!  'tis  rushing  down  from  high! 

Regions  on  regions,  far  away  they  shine; 

'Tis  light  ineffable,  'tis  light  divine! 

"  Immortal  light  and  light  forevermore." 

Off  through  the  deeps  is  heard  from  shore  to  shore 

Of  rolling  worlds:     Man!  wake  thee  from  the  sod! 

Awake  from  death!  awake,  and  live  with  God! 

— y?.  H,  Dana. 


THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE 


O  Dcus,  ego  anio  Tc ! 
Ncc  amo  Te,  ut  salves  me, 
Aut  quia  non  amantes  Tc 
^Eterno  punis  igne. 

Tu,  Tu,  my  Jesu,  totum  me 
Amplexus  es  in  cruce, 
Tulisti  clavos,  lanccam, 
Multamque  ignominiam, 
Iniiumeros  dolores, 
Sutlores  et  angores, 
Ac  mortem :  et  haec  propter  mc, 

Ac  pro  me  peccatore. 

Cur  igitur  non  amem  Te, 
O  Jesu  amantissime? 
Non  ut  in  coelo  salves  me, 
Aut  ne  re  tern  um  damnes  me, 
Aut  prsemii  ullius  spe: 
Sed,  sicut  Tu  amasti  me, 
Sic  amo  et  amabo  Te : 
Solum  quia  Rex  meus  es, 
Et  solum  quia  Deus  es. 

— Pi'cDici.s  Xavicr. 

6  kiopaxwq  ^Ejie  i(opaxe  zov  rJarifja. — yo//u  a/z/c;. 

^Eycb  xai  6  TIazrip  " Ev  iff/iev. — y^o/in  x:jo. 

Christ  set  up  the  human  parent  as  the  best  representative  of 
the  Divine  Father,  and  thereby  elevated  the  parental  spirit  into 
an  interMTeter  of  divine  things. — Ecce  Deus, 


THE  CHEIST  IN  LIFE, 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE   MINISTRY   OF   RECONCILIATION. 

I  bring  jou  good  tidings  of  great  joj,  which  shall  be  to  all  the 
people ;  for  there  is  born  to  jou  this  day ,  in  the  City  of  David  a 
Savior,  Who  is  Christ  the  Lord. — Z,uke  it: lo-ii. 

God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself. — // 
Cor.  V :  ig. 

For  forty  centuries  .through  ante-  and  post-diluvian 
patriarchs  and  prophets, — light  cumulating  through 
personal  experiences  and  observations  of  generations 
— as  those  centuries  progressed,  mankind  had  knowl- 
edge of  God  and  recognized  His  personality; — appre- 
hension not  complete,  as  in  fact  -it  is  not  now,  since 
the  Finite  cannot  grasp  the  Infinite,  but  adequate 
doubtless-  for  those  child  and  progressing  ages  of 
human  development.  One  ray  shot  into  the  darkness 
will  suffice  for  apprehension  of  the  nature  and  qual- 
ities of  light. 

There  had  been  a  multiplicity  of  previous  manifes- 
tations of  Him,,  out  of  the  earth,  and  from  the  starry 
heavens;  through  His  speech  direct  to  men,  and  indi- 
rect— through  those  who,  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 

2  (17) 


18  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

spoke  from  Him.  All  these,  even  with  the  super- 
added ministries  of  priest,  prophet  and  king — ritual 
and  temple  service  failed  to  stem  the  human  move- 
ment downward.  Men  rejected  the  Truth — messages 
from  God  through  fallible  lips.  They  clamored  for 
a  higher,  positive,  palpable  manifestation  of  Him 
through  an  infallible  Person,  in  human  form,  that 
they  might  speak  to  and  be  spoken  to  by  Him;  that 
doubts  accumulated  upon  prime  beliefs  might  be  re- 
moved, and  that  light  sufficient  upon  the  mysteries 
of  life  and  the  unsolved  problems  of  the  future, 
might  be  given.  Humanity  had  been  yearning  for 
His  advent.  Heathen  poets,  as  well  as  sacred  min- 
strels, hailed  the  auspicious  hour.  The  cry  was  then 
as  now  for  His  second  appearing. 

Come !  for  Creation  groans, 

Impatient  of  Thj  stay — 
Worn  out  ^vith  these  long  years  of  ill, 

These  ages  of  delay 

Come,  and  make  all  things  new, 

Build  up  this  ruined  earth. 
Restore  our  faded  paradise — 

Creation's  second  birth. 

Come,  and  begin  Thy  reign 

Of  everlasting  peace ; 
Come,  and  take  the  kingdom  to  Thyself, 

Great  King  of  Righteousness. 

He  came.  But  His  Hebrew  brethren  would  not 
recognize  or  tolerate  His  claim.  By  no  means  did 
they  look  for  Him  to  be  cradled  in  a  manger,  the  son 
of  a  carpenter,  and  a  Nazarene.  In  the  synagogue 
of  the  place  "where  He  had  been  brought  up,"  He 


NEVER  MAN  SPAKE  LIKE  THIS  MAN.  19 

read  the  declaration  of  the  prophet,  expecting  that 
the  reference  and  the  application  would  be  recog- 
nized. The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  Me,  because 
He  hath  anointed  Me  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the 
poor;  He  hath  sent  Me  to  heal  the  broken  in  heart; 
to  proclaim  release  to  the  captives,  and  restoration  of 
sight  to  the  blind;  to  send  deliverance  to  the  op- 
pressed; to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord. 
This  day,  said  He,  the  Scripture  has  been  fulfilled  in 
your  ears.  Luke  iv:  18-21.  In  vain, — though  all 
wondered  at  the  gracious  words  He  spake.  No  proph- 
et is  accepted  by  his  neighbors.  All  the  bigotry  of 
the  Jewish  heart  was  fired.  The  Devil,  it  may  be  be- 
lieved, was  present  to  fan  it  into  flames.  Is  not  this 
the  carpenter, — the  son  of  Mary,  the  brother  of  James, 
and  Joseph,  and  Simon?  and  are  not  His  sisters  here 
with  us?  Matth.  xiii:55;  Mark  vi:3.  In  their  rage, 
they  rose  and  drove  Him  from  the  town,  and  led  Him 
to  the  brow  of  the  hill  whereon  it  was  built,  that  they 
might  hurl  Him  down  headlong.  Luke  iv:  28-29. 
Amiable  fellow  citizens ,  indeed!  Waiting  for  the 
Hope  of  Israel!  Thus  men  in  all  ages,  aspiring  os- 
tensibly for  Truth-revealers,  have  made  quick  dis- 
posal of  them  when  they  came,  and  their  children 
build  and  garnish  their  sepulchres. 

Eloquent  men,  brilliant  teachers,  there  have  been, 
very  many,  before  and  since  His  time — mighty  proph- 
ets from  Abraham  to  John;  but  never  man  spake 
like  this  Man.  His  declarations  concerning  the  spirit- 
ual state  of  men,  the  conditions  of  salvation, — ^that 
weal  or  woe  would  ensue  upon  their  acceptance  or  re- 
jection, were  intelligent  to  all.    Some  statements,  as 


20  THE  CHllIST  IN   LIFE. 

designed,  stirred  to  the  deepest  the  profoundest  think- 
ers. They  confounded  the  Pharisaic  casuist,  and  the 
Sadducean  caviler.  They  were  stimuLating  to  all 
Truth-seekers.  They  gi-appled  with  the  subtlest  in- 
quiries, and  the  profoundest  problems  in  ethics,  re- 
ligion and  spiritual  destiny.  They  responded  to  the 
universal  yearning  for  more  light.  They  confirmed 
the  common  hojje  and  fear  with  respect  to  the  Here- 
after. The  common  peoj^le  heard  Him  gladly.  Mark 
xii :  37.  All  hung  upon  Him  listening.  Luke  xiv:  48. 
When  listening  they  had  heard,  they  marvelled,  left 
Him  and  went  their  way.  Matth.  xxii :  22.  Marvel- 
ling at  His  answer ,  were  silent.  Luke  xx:26.  The 
Jews  mai-velled,  saying  how  knoweth  this  Man  let- 
ters, having  never  learned?  John  vii:  15.  And  they 
were  astonished  at  His  doctrine,  for  He  taught  them 
as  One  having  authority,  and  not  as  the  Scribes. 
Matth.  vii:  29. 

He  reaffirmed,  supplemented,  illustrated  and  en- 
forced, with  such  appositeness  and  cogency  as  no  one^ 
before  or  since  had  done,  what  had  been  enjoined  in 
the  Law  and  the  Prophets.  The  Scribes  and  Phari- 
sees, as  well  as  the  common  and  illiterate  Hebrews, 
knew  that  supreme  love  was  due  to  the  Being  who 
made  them ;  their  theoretic  forms  of  belief  and  wor- 
ship expressed  it — that  they  should  love  their  neigh- 
bors as  themselves,  for  their  daily  remonstrances 
against  wrongs  in  society  attested  it.  "  Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all 
thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy 
strength;  thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself;" 
intelligent  Hebrews  knew  that  they  were,  word  for 


MESSIANIC   PEOPHECY   REALIZED.  21 

word,  the  repetition  of  what  had  been,  from  the  in- 
fancy of  their  history  through  all  their  national  devel- 
opment, enjoined.*  Obey!  Believe!  Repent!  were 
as  familiar  before  as  at  His  coming.  His  exposition 
of  these  commands,  and  His  personal  application  of 
them,  at  first  startling,  finally  commended  themselves 
as  just  and  true.  He  that  harbors,  cherishes  the  de- 
sire for  another's  wife  is  an  adulterer.  He  that  stead- 
ily, persistently  hates  is  a  murderer.  Such  ones  want 
only  opportunity  and  occasion.  And  one  of  the 
Scribes  came,  and  having  heard  them  questioning  to- 
gether, and  knowing  that  He  had  answered  them  well 
— tumid  as  it  would  seem  with  conceit — asked  Him: 
Which  is  the  first  commandment  of  all  ?  To  the  Sav- 
ior's answer,  the  patronizer  could  not  otherwise  than 
respond:  Well,  Teacher!  of  truth  Thou  dost  say  that 
He  is  One,  and  there  is  none  other  than  He.  And, 
to  love  Him  with  all  the  heart,  and  with  all  the  under- 
standing, and  with  all  the  soul,  and  with  all  the 
strength,  and  to  love  his  neighbor  as  himself  is  more 
than  all  whole  burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices.  Mark 
xii:  28-33. 

All  the  religious  service  of  the  Hebrews  was  typical 
and  prophetic  of  His  coming.  His  appearance  in  the 
flesh.  His  teachings,  life  were  the  realization  of  Mes- 

I.  Confucius,  five  centuries  before  Jesus,  enunciated  substan- 
tially the  same  precept. 

In  the  *'  Laws  "  of  Plato  is  the  following  aspiration  :  May  I,  being 
of  sound  mind,  do  to  others  as  I  would  that  they  should  do  to  me. 
— Book  xty  giSt  yoToeWs  Version. 

Not  to  do  what  one's  own  sense  of  right  tells  him  not  to  do,  not 
to  desire  what  it  forbids  him  to  desire,  is  the  sum  of  right  action  — 
Tohio. — Johnson. — Oriental  Religions. 


22  THE  CHRIST   IN  LIFE. 

sianic  prophecy.  The  intelligent  Jew,  the  representa- 
tive Scribe  and  Pharisee,  must  have  known  it  if  they 
had  considered;  but  their  anticipations  were  so  unspir- 
itual;  they  had  so  degenerated  in  faith  and  practice; 
the  Savior's  presence,  teaching  and  working;  the  evi- 
denced realization  in  Him  of  Prophecy  were  so  re- 
bukeful  of  their  lapsed  condition;  they  would  not 
allow  themselves  to  listen  for  any  considerable  period, 
to  reflect,  to  apply.  They  spiritually,  as  they  did  lit- 
erally, put  their  fingers  in  their  ears,  and  closed  the 
interview,  by  "Away  with  Him." 

He  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light  through  His 
Gospel;  more  literally  threw  light  upon,  or  illustra- 
ted life  and  immortality  through  His  Evangel.  There 
had  been  frequent  intimations  of  the  soul's  eternity 
throughout  the  Old  Testament  records.  It  seems  to 
have  been  assumed  throughout,  though  some  have 
questioned  its  direct  affirmation  in  those  records. 
The  Patriarchs  had  been  stimulated  and  spiritually 
fortified  by  it,  and  frequently  made  allusions  to  it. 
The  Psalms  and  Prophecies  are  full  of  references. 
Jesus  saith  unto  her,  thy  brother  shall  rise  again. 
Martha  saith  unto  Him,  I  know — as  if  it  was  a  truth 
of  prior  recognition, — I  know  that  he  shall  rise  again 
in  the  resurrection  at  the  last  day.  John  xi:24 
The  Old  Testament  abounded  in  presuppositions  of 
eternal  existence.  In  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  it 
was  said,  God  created  man  in  His  own  image.  In 
the  image  of  God  is  implied  eternal  existence.  In 
the  trial  of  our  first  parents  was  involved  something 
beyond  mere  physical  life  and  death.  The  murder 
of  the  righteous  Abel  in  the  prime  of  being,  while 


LIFE  AND  IMMOKTALITY  BROUGHT  TO  LIGHT.    23 

the  life  of  fratricidal  Cain  was  suffered  to  be  pro- 
longed, could  not  be  reconciled  with  the  assumed 
justice  of  God,  save  upon  the  presumption  that  there 
would  be  ^hereafter  a  just  recompense  and  a  compen- 
sation for  this  atrocity,  and  this  sudden  curtailment 
of  earthly  being.  The  Apostle  says,  Abel  having 
died,  still  speaks.  The  acts  speak,  says  the  skeptic. 
But  if  it  is  a  fact,  that  the  acts — the  results  of  a  man's 
thoughts  .have  survived  six  thousand  years,  is  it  cred- 
ible .that  the  mind  itself, — the  elaborator  .under  God 
of  those  thoughts,  has  not  likewise  survived?  Enoch 
walked  with  God,  and  he  was  not;  for  God  took  him. 
Does  any  one  believe,  that  this  taking  of  Enoch  by 
God  was  eternal  extinction?  The  Apostle  says,  by 
faith  Enoch  was  translated,  etc., — transferred  from 
earth  to  some  other  place;  and  where  would  God  take 
him  but  to  Himself — to  His  own  holy  place?  Would 
He  take  him  there  to  be  annihilated?  In  regard  to 
Abraham,  the  same  Apostle  says :  He  waited  for  the 
city — having  foundations,  whose  architect  and  builder 
is  God.  Hebrews  xi:  10.  What  else  but  the  heavenly 
Jerusalem?  His  descendants  in  faith  confessed  that 
they  were  strangers  and  pilgrims  on  the  earth,  seek- 
ing after  a  country  of  their  own — desiring  a  better,  a 
Heavenly,  prepared  for  them.  What  but  the  Heaven 
eternal?  Heb.  xi:  10-19.  With  respect  to  the  at- 
tempted offering  of  Isaac  by  Abraham,  the  Apostle 
declares,  that  he  did  it,  accounting  that  God  was  able 
to  raise  even  from  the  dead.  The  language  of  God 
to  Moses  in  the  burning  bush,  I  am  the  God  of  Abra- 
ham, the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob,  the 
Savior  interpreted,  as  teaching  the  resurrection  from 


24  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

the  dead,  and  the  future  life.     The  Apostle  declares, 
that  Moses,  in  his  choosing  rather  to  endure  suffering 
with  the  people  of  God,  than  to  enjoy  the  pleasures 
of  sin  for  a  season,  etc.,  had  respect  unto  the  recom- 
pense of  the  reward.     Heb.  xi.     Where,  and  to  what, 
but  the  recompense  of  the  just  ?  Balaam's  prayer  was : 
Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous,  and  let  my 
last  end  be  like  his.     Why,  but  for  the  ultimate,  the 
resultant,  and  the  eternal  joy?    Saul's  desire  to  have 
Samuel  summoned  from  the  dead,  is  an  indication  of 
the  popular  belief  in  the  continued  existence  of  the 
soul  after  physical,  psychical  death.     The  repeated 
use  of  the  language,  *'  As  Jehovah  liveth,  and  as  thy 
soul  liveth,"  is  thought  to  imply  the  eternity  of  the 
soul    from  its  association  with  the  Eternal  Spirit. 
The  Psalmist,  in  the  16th  Psalm,  declares:    My  flesh 
also  shall  rest  in  hope.     For  thou  wilt  not  leave  my 
soul  in  Hades,  neither  wilt  thou  suffer  thy  Holy  One 
to  see  corruption.     ...     At  thy  right  hand  are 
pleasures  forevermore.     Whether  declarative  of  him- 
self, or  of  the  Messiah,  the  passage  teaches  the  eter- 
nal existence  of  the  soul.     In  the  17th  Psalm,  13-15, 
the  wicked  are  spoken  of  as  ha^dng  their  portion  in 
this  life.     As  for  me  I  will  behold  Thy  face  in  right- 
eousness:  I  shall  be  satisfied,  when  I  awake    with 
Thy  appearance.     In  the  49th  Psalm,  the  wicked  are 
said  to  be  laid  in  the  grave  like  sheep.     But  .the 
Psalmist  says,  the  upright  shall  rule  over  them  in  the 
morning — of  what,,  but  of  the  resurrection  ?   God  vdll 
redeem  me  from  the  hand  of  Sheol,  for  He  will  take 
me  out  of  it.     In  the  73d  Psalm,  the  royal  writer 
could  not  be  reconciled  with  the  fact,  that  the  wicked 


LIFE  AND  IMMORTALITY  BROUGHT  TO  LIGHT.        25 

were  prospered,  until  he  saw  their  end  in  the  light  of 
God's  law.  But,  says  He,  Thou  shalt  guide  me  with 
thy  counsel,  and  afterward  take  me  to  glory.  ,  .  . 
My  flesh  and  my  heart  faileth;  but  God  is  the  rock 
of  my  heart,  and  my  portion  forever.  In  the  Proverbs 
and  Ecclesiastes,  eternal  life  and  eternal  death  are 
often  referred  to.  For  instance :  "  The  wicked  is  driven 
away  in  his  wickedness;  but  the  righteous  hath  hope 
in  his  death.  .  .  .  God  shall  bring  every  work 
into  judgment,  with  every  secret  thing,  whether  it  be 
good,  or  whether  it  be  evil."  What  stronger  proofs  of 
the  continued  existence  of  the  soul  after  its  dissolu- 
tion from  the  body,  than  the  restoration  to  life  of  the 
sons  of  the  widow  of  Zarephath,  and  of  the  Shunamite 
woman,  and  the  ascension  of  Elijah  in  the- chariot  of 
fire?  The  imagery  of  the  descent  of  the  King  of 
Babylon  into  Sheol, — in  the  language  of,  ''  Thy  dead 
shall  live;  my  dead  shall  rise.  Awake  and  sing,  ye 
that  dwell  in  dust;  for  thy  dew  is  as  the  dew  on  herbs, 
and  the  earth  shall  cast  out  the  dead.  The  righteous 
perish,  and  no  man  lays  it  to  heart;  and  Godly  men 
are  taken  away,  none  considering  that  the  righteous 
are  taken  away  from  that  which  is  eviL  He  shall 
enter  peace ;  they  shall  rest  in  their  beds,  each  one 
walking  in  his  uprightness" — imply  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  resurrection — of  existence  beyond  physical 
death,  was  understood  by  the  Hebrews  in  the  time 
of  Isaiah.  Is.  26  and  57.  Daniel  had  a  vision  of 
the  future  judgment,  when  he  saw  the  throne  on 
which  the  Ancient  of  Days  did  sit.  His  garment  was 
white  as  snow.  His  hair  was  like  pure  wool.  His 
throne  was  like  the  fiery  flame;  His  wheels  as  burn- 


26  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

ing  fire.     .     .     Many  of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust 
of  the  earth  shall  awake,   some  to  everlasting 

LIFE,  AND  SOME  TO  SHAME  AND  EVERLASTING  CONTEMPT. 

Dan.  vii,  xii. 

If  the  inquiiy  in  I  Cor.  xv:35  should  be  raised, — 
how  are  the  dead  raised,  and  with  what  body  do  they 
come? — Paul's  elaborate  response  must  be  studied,  as 
the  completest  ever  given.  It  is  replete  with  satisfac- 
tion and  triumph.  The  intimation  of  a  recent  Eng- 
lish writer,  in  this  connection,  deserves  consid- 
eration. 

"We  have  good  ground  for  oelieving  in  the  exist- 
ence of  a  non-atomic  enswathment  of  the  soul, 
ethereal,  intangible,  invisible,  which  at  death  de- 
parts with  it  from  the  muddy  vesture  of  decay,  and 
constitutes  the  resurrection  body."  ^ 

The  Hebrew  race  were  in  Egypt  over  four  hundred 
years.  In  their  subjected  condition,  necessarily  im- 
pressible, if  they  had  not  been  previously  indoctrin- 
ated in  the  prime  elements  of  Natural  religion — re- 
produced and  emphasized  in  the  special  revelation 
their  ancestry  had  received;  they  must  have  been  edu- 
cated into  beliefs  held  by  Egyptians  ior  thousands  of 
years  before  their  advent  among  them,  viz:  of  One 
Supreme  Being,  of  the  eternity  of  the  soul,  and  of  its 
happiness  or  misery  in  the  other  life ,  according  to  its 
conduct  in  this.  Can  it  be  believed  that  the  He- 
brews— God's  select  out  of  all  other  nations  as  the 
special  recipients  of  His  prescribed  will,  had  been 
uninstructed  before  and  after  the  Exodus,  as  to  these 

I.     W.  S.  Lilly. 


LIFE  AND  IMMOBTALITY  BROUGHT  TO  LIGHT.        27 

most  important  truths,  as  some  modern  theological 
speculatists  intimate  ?  ^ 

It  is  not  surprising,  that,  on  those  occasions  when 

I.     See  citations  in  "Light  of  Life,"  pages  70-74. 

The  farther  back  we  go  into  the  earliest  years  of  Egyptian  his- 
tory, the  more  apparent  it  becomes,  that,  originally,  one  God,  all 
Supreme,  was  the  object  of  universal  faith. 

Diodorus  Siculus  says,  the  Egyptians  call  the  dwellings  of  the 
living,  lodgings,  because  they  are  only  occupied  for  a  short  time; 
the  tombs,  on  the  contrary,  they  call  "  eternal  houses,"  because 
their  occupants  never  left  them. 

Their  belief  in  a  future  life,  and  in  a  resurrection  of  the  body, 
was  most  singularly  real ;  hence  arose  the  care  of  the  bodies  of  the 
dead,  and  of  their  tombs. 

The  national  faith  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body  ,  originated  the  art  of  decorating  the  tombs  and 
pf  preservation  of  the  dead. 

The  Egyptian  of  the  earliest  times  had  a  strong  and  abiding 
conviction,  that  his  fate,  after  death,  would  depend  on  his  conduct 
during  his  life  on  earth,  and  especially  on  his  observance  of  the 
moral  law. — Ra-wlinson. — Rioted  by  Prof.  H.  S.  Osborn^  LL.  D. 
Ancient  Egypt. 

The  religious  faith  of  the  Egyptians  comprised  two  prominent 
articles  of  belief — one  was  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  other, 
the  resurrection  of  the  flesh.  The  soul  or  spirit  is  frequently  de- 
lineated on  the  walls  of  the  tombs  as  a  hawk  with  human  head, 
furnished  with  wings,  by  which  it  could  hover  around  the  mummy 
of  the  deceased  and  watch  over  its  preservation,  .  .  .  Much 
of  the  religious  thought  of  the  Egyptian  was  devoted  to  the  con- 
struction of  his  tomb,  the  dwelling  of  the  future, — to  which,  after 
an  indefinite  period  of  penitence  and  probation,  the  spirit  would 
return  to  infuse  new  life  into  the  shrivelled  corpse.  The  existing 
life  was  as  nothing  to  him  compared  vvith  the  life  to  come,  and  its 
necessities  of  little  concern :  the  sun-dried  brick  was  a  sufficient 
protection  for  the  living  man ;  but  the  dwelling  of  the  future 
called  forth  the  highest  ability  of  the  architect,  the  mason,  and 
the  artist. — Egypt  of  the  Past, — Erasimis  Wilson^  F  R.  S 


28  THE  CHRIST   IN   LiFE. 

Jesus  discoursed  upon  these  mysteries,  and  flooded 
them  with  light,  that  the  masses,  hungering  and 
thirsting  with  generations  before  them,  for  an  ampler, 
a  clearer  revelation,  listened  to  Him  with  the  keenest 
relish  and  the  most  exalted  satisfaction. 

No  forced  exegesis,  no  labored  misinterpretation, 
no  perverted  application  can  set  aside  the  plain,  ob- 
vious meaning  of  Isaiah  xxxiii :  14  The  response, 
given  to  the  interrogation,  in  the  succeeding  verses 
settles  it  beyond  dispute.  The  sinners  in  Zion  are 
afraid;  fearfulness  hath  surprised  the  hypocrites; 
who  among  us  shall  dwell  with  the  devouring  fire  ? 
who  among  us  shall  dwell  with  everlasting  burnings  ? 
— not  material  fire  or  burnings,  of  course, — the  lan- 
guage is  symbolic,  but  the  spiritual  sufferings,  the 
spiritual  punishment,  consequential  or  legitimate,  of 
which  fire  and  burnings  are  the  vividest,  the  most  be- 
fitting symbols. 

Who  is  he  that  will  nof  "dwell,"  etc. ?  "He,"  says 
the  prophet,  "that  walketh  righteously  and  speaketh 
uprightly,"  etc' 

Jesus  commenced  His  public  ministry,  by  reiterat- 
ing the  message  of  His  forerunner — "Kepent!  for  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand."  This  was  "the 
baptism  of  repentance  "  for  the  dismission,  "remis- 
sion," "forgiveness  of  sins" — "the  gospel  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God,"  to  which  He  summoned  his  hear- 

I.  Will  the  unbeliever  in  punishment  for  unrepented  sin,  or  he 
who  is  disposed  to  cavil,  and  to  be  satisfied  \vith  the  flimsy  diver- 
sion and  application  of  its  obvious  meaning  by  optimistic  eschatol- 
ogists — though  he  has  read  this  passage  many  times — read  it 
again  with  the  fifteenth  Psalm  in  this  connection. 


BEPENTANCE  THE  CONDITION  OF  FORGIVENESS.      29 

ers  to  give  heed.  It  was  the  old  cry  from  the  Heavens, 
that  had  been  thundering  adown  the  ages  from  the 
earliest  transgression, — the  blast  of  the  celestial 
trumpet  precedent  to  every  reformation,  when  men 
in  forgetfulness  of  God  and  in  derogation  of  His  be- 
hests had  become  imbruted  in  crime,  or  sunk  in 
spiritual  apathy;  Change!  or  Die!  Die,  nationally, 
individually!  Die  .temporally,  spiritually!  The  pre- 
scription and  the  prerequisite  for  averting  the  spirit- 
ual ruin  of  the  individual,  and  for  staying  the  anarchy 
to  which  the  Jewish  State  had  been  often  and  long 
tending,  was  in  accord  with  the  presumption  of  natu- 
ral reason.  Of  course,  the  message  was  primarily  to 
each  and  every  individuaL  Through  the  Christian- 
ization  of  the  individual,  only  could  the  evangelization 
of  communities  or  nations  be  attained. 

Belief,  then,  in  His  Gospel — requiring  repentance, 
which,  if  genuine,  would  be  in  realization  of  help- 
lessness, "the  Godly  sorrow  which  worketh  repent- 
ance unto  salvation,"  would  be  succeeded  by  regener- 
ation of  soul,  transformation  of  character  through 
the  Spirit,  forgiveness  by  the  Heavenly  Father — 
endless  joy  the  resultant. 

There  is  therefore  no  need  of  mystification  as  to 
these  conditions  of  forgiveness,  and  of  salvation;  as 
to  the  relations  of  Jesus — God  manifest  to  the  sinner; 
as  to  the  way,  or  by  what  means  the  salvation  is 
wrought.  His  teachings  on  the  subject  were  lucid 
and  cogent.  Multitudes  of  God-fearing  and  Christ- 
loving  persons  have  been  needlessly  and  cruelly  dis- 
tressed by  doubts  of  their  personal  safety,  arising 
out  of  metaphysical  subtleties  engendered  by  theolog- 


30  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

ical  school-men,,  and  have  been  incapacitated  thereby, 
for  the  practical  duties  of  religion,  and  to  labor  en- 
couragingly for  the  eternal  weal  of  others.  It  is  not 
believed,  that  the  Divine  Father,  in  making  provision 
for  the  reconciliation  of  His  prodigal  children  to 
Himself,  intended  that  the  conditions  should  be  so 
complex  and  so  involved  metaphysically  or  spiritually, 
that  they  could  not  be  readily  apprehended  by  the 
simplest,  and  would  not  immediately  commend  them- 
selves to  every  individual  reason  though  feeble,  as 
just  and  befitting.^ 

A  gift  or  offering  from  the  creature  to  the  Creator, 
is  ever  a  natural  and  appropriate  token  of  recognition, 
of  gratitude  for  being  and  preservation; — a  sacrifice 
of  anything  regarded  precious,  especially  grain  or 
fruit,  nutritious  beasts  and  bird^ — staple  means  of 
subsistence — measure  of  value,  and  currency  for  ex- 
change and  barter,  suggests  itself  to  a  mind  benighted, 
yet  conscious  of  guilt,  as  most  befitting  to  propitiate 
or  to  appease  an  offended  but  placable  Deity.  Cain 
and  Abel,  subsequently  the  illustrious  progenitor  of 
the  Hebrew  race,  and  Noah  from  a  deluged  world , 
employed  offering  and  sacrifice.  Evidences  of  such 
practice  are  found  in  the  history  of  all  ancient  peo- 
ples. "All  religions,  excepting  Buddhism,  had  their 
priests  and  their  sacrifices,  propitiatory  as  well  as 

I  The  New  Testament  writers,  as  a  primary  condition  of 
direct  contact  with  truth,  insist  on  moral,  rather  than  intellectual 
qualifications.  Every  degree  of  mind  above  idiocy,  they  affirm, 
can  be  made  to  understand  and  enjoy  something  of  the  Holy 
Gospel  and  its  certainties  of  truth  and  grace,  if  there  be  but  an 
honest  intention. — Ed.  White. — Certainties  in  Religion. 


THE  CEBEMONIAL  LAW — PROVISIONAL  MEANS.       31 

eucharistic."  ^  The  practice  was  common  in  Egypt, 
and  the  Hebrews  took  it  with  them  on  their  Exodus. 
The  Eitual  purged,  with  special  requirements  pre- 
scribed or  tolerated  by  Jehovah  through  Moses;  was 
intended,  doubtless,  to  be  merely  provisional  means 
for  the  regimen  of  a  semi  or  wholly  barbarous  horde 
— a  temporary  instrumentality  to  conduct  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  a  select  but  refractory  people,  to  a 
purer  service,  and  upwards  to  the  worship  of  Jehovah, 
inclusive,  of  course,  of  the  prophecy  and  forecast  in- 
terwoven in  the  shadowy  outline — not  the  perfected 
image  of  the  good  things  to  come  through  the  Mes- 
siah.    Heb.  vii-xi. 

Gentiles,  in  being  apprised  of  the  mission  of  Jesus, 
can  come  directly  to  Him.  They  need  not  the  tram- 
mel, the  burden,  the  discipline,  the  repression  of  an 
obsolete  Eitual,  elaborated,  reticulated,  thousands  of 
years  before  the  advent  of  the  Messiah,  though  they 
may  be  instructed  by  it,  and  fortified  in  their  Chris- 
tian trust.  Antitypes  now  realized,  predictions  now 
fulfilled  can  be  found  inwrought  in  that  Eitual;  but 
it  is  not  necessary  that  its  details,  or  even  its  special- 
ties with  their  phraseologies  should  be  strained  or 
magnified  for  the  advocacy  or  the  defense  of  Chris- 
tianity. It  must  stand  or  fall  on  the  evidenced  Deity 
of  its  Founder — through  His  Deific  works  and  words. 
The  eternal  and  the  universal  principles  of  morality 
— discriminating  between  right  and  wrong,  justice 
and  injustice;  obligation  to  reverence,  if  not  to  love 
the  Creator;  regard  for  one's  neighbor  as  for  one's  self 
— embodied  in  the  Moral  Law,  distinctive  and  inter- 

1.     Mosaic  P.isp.ensation  — Litton  ^^Pa^npton  Lectures. 


32  THE   CHKIST   IN   LIFE. 

woveu  by  Moses  in  his  legislation,  are  found  in  the 
credenda  of  all  peoples.  Of  course,  the  realized 
failure  of  attempted  obedience  prepares  idolatrous 
but  conscientious  heathen,  as  in  fact  all  men,  to  ap- 
preciate and  to  hail  the  mission  of  the  manifested 
God  in  the  Christ — the  perfect  Man,  Who  is  the 
Way,  the  Truth  and  the  Life. 

But  the  Hebrews  do  not  appear  to  have  paid  much 
attention  to  the  Levitical  ceremonials  during  their 
National  history,,  save  in  the  spasmodic  efforts  of 
Hezekiah  and  Josiah  for  their  revival,  until  their  re- 
turn fi'om  the  Babylonian  captivity — close  to  ten  cen- 
turies after  their  alleged  institution  by  Moses.  The 
prophets,  God's  spokesmen,  referred  to  them  con- 
temptuously, when  proffered  as  substitutes  for  the 
obedience  and  service  of  the  heart;  though  after  the 
return  from  the  Exile  to  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
the  Jews  were  very  zealous  in  their  obsei-vance;  they 
did  not  advance  spii'itually  upwards  and  towards  their 
Jahveh,  but  gravitated  downwards  and  away  from 
Him.  The  parents  of  Jesus  seem  to  have  been  punc- 
tilious in  bringing  prescribed  offerings,  but  Jesus 
Himself  did  not,  apparently,  pay  attention  to  them, 
save  on  His  public  introduction  to  His  ministry, 
through  Baptism,  and  in  the  celebration  of  the  Pass- 
over— on  the  eve  of  His  tragical  end,  and  that  for  the 
higher  purpose  of  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per. When  he  went  to  the  Temple,  it  was  simply  to 
improve  the  opportunity  of  teaching  the  multitudes 
who  had  gathered  in  or  about  it.  One  of  the  avowed 
purposes  of  His  mission  was  to  relieve  His  country- 


FORGIVENESS  CONDITIONED  UPON  REPENTANCE.   33 

men  from  bondage  to  them.  He  nailed  them  to  His 
cross.     Coloss.  ii:14 

The  declaration  of  God  through  Jeremiah  vii :  21-24, 
is  memorable,  and  should  not  fail  to  be  noted  in  this 
connection:     Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  the  God 

of  Israel For  I  spake    not   unto   your 

Fathers,  nor  commanded  them  in  the  day  that 
I  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  con- 
cerning sacrifices.  But  this  thing  I  commanded 
them,  saying:  Obey  My  voice,  and  I  will  be  your 
God,  and  ye  shall  be  My  people;  and  walk  ye  in 
all  the  ways  that  I  have  commanded  you,  that  it  may 
be  well  with  you,  etc.,  etc.  Positive  declarations  are 
interspersed  through  the  Prophecies,  that  the  blood 
of  bulls  and  goats  could  not  wash  away  sins — as 
caveats  to  devotees  at  the  sacrificial  altar,  not  to  base 
their  hopes  of  deliverance  from  the  consequences  of 
sins  real,  of  appeasing  their  God — "angry,"  anthro- 
popathically^  for  human  apprehension,  "with  the 
wicked  every  day," — of  forgiveness  by  Him,  and 
final  salvation,  through  such  material  devote- 
ment; — that  the  sacrifice  for  such  ends,  acceptable 
and  pleas'ng  to  God,  was  "  a  broken  spirit,  a  broken 
and  contrite  heart,"  ever  and  always  succeeded  by  the 

I.  If  God  was  to  be  described  as  a  Person,  and  not  a  mere  in- 
fluence, how  could  the  conception  be  conveyed,  save  but  by 
ascribing  to  Him  attributes  associated  in  our  mind  with  person- 
ality ?  .  .  .  Never  forget,  that  man  was  created  in  the  image 
of  God;  .  .  .  therefore,  there  is,  and  must  be,  a  real  conform- 
ity of  our  moral  ideas  to  the  infinitely  higher,  but  in  some  sense, 
corresponding  attributes  of  the  Most  High. — Mosaic  Disfe72safwn. 
Litton. — Bampton  Lectures, 
3 


34  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

fruit  of  conduct  meet  for  repentance.  Hence  also 
the  specific  and  formal  re-announcement  of  the  con- 
dition of  forgiveness  by  John  Baptist,  and  its  reitera- 
tion with  the  weightiest  emphasis,  by  God  in  Christ 
Himself — that  the  requirement  was,  as  it  had  ever 
been,  "Kepent!"  Hence  also  the  illustrative  teach- 
ing of  the  Prodigal  Son — the  most  cogent  and  effect- 
ive appeal  to  the  parental  heart,  that  the  Divine 
Father's  dealings  with  His  prodigal  ones  were  unmis- 
tak  fahly  lo"sdng,  patient  and  forbearing;  that  His 
tenderness  was  exquisite,  His  love  incompassable. 
His  forgiveness  illimitable.  Thus  He  appealed,  and 
closed  forever  the  mouth  of  gainsayers:  If  ye  being 
evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children, 
hoiv  much  more  shall  your  Heavenly  Father  give  the 
Holy  Spii'it  to  them  that  ask  Him!  Luke  xi:13; 
Matth.  vii:ll.; — since,  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
inclusive  of  all  possible  spiritual  blessings,  for  the 
regeneration,  the  renovation,  the  purification,  the 
ever-progressing  edification  of  a  soul  towards  the 
angels — indeed,  towards  God  Himself  in  His  perfec- 
tion,— for  the  injunction  from  the  Deific  Man  Him- 
self: Be  ye .  therefore  perfect,  as  your  Heavenly 
Father  is  perfect, — looks  to  it. 

And  Jesus  Himself  declared  His  mission  to  the 
Gentiles  likewise  as  to  "His  people,"  in  His  commis- 
sion of  Paul:  Gentiles  unto  whom  I  send  thee,  to 
open  their  eyes  that  they  may  turn  from  darkness  to 
light,  and  from  the  power  of  Satan  unto  God,  that 
they  may  receive  remission  of  sins,  and  an  inheritance 
among  them  that  are  sanctified  by  faith  in  Me.  Acts 
xxvi:  17-18.     It  is  the  burden  and  the  specific  teach- 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  SON  OF  GOD.  35 

ing  of  all  His  parables  of  Grace.  The  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  is  an  exposition  of  what  He  came  to  do.  He 
declared  in  John  xviii:  37:  To  this  end  have  I  been 
born;  and  to  this  end  have  I  come  into  the  world, 
that  I  might  testify  to  the  Truth.  John  Baptist 
forestated,  Matth.  iii:  10-12, — it  was  to  lay  the  ax  of 
extermination  at  the  root  of  all  wrong,  and  to  sweep 
away  all  chaff  of  profession  without  possession  by 
the  Fan  of  righteousness  in  His  hand.  He  learned 
obedience  by  the  things  which  He  suffered;  and  hav- 
ing been  perfected.  He  became  unto  all  them  who 
obey  Him  the  Causer  of  eternal  salvation.  Heb.  v: 
8-9.  Because  Christ  also  suffered  for  you,  leaving 
you  an  example,  that  ye  should  follow  His  steps.  I 
Peter  ii:  21. 

He  came  .  then  ,  the  manifestation  of  God  in  the 
flesh,  a  revelation  of  His  divine  personality,  of  all  the 
divinest  characteristics  and  qualities  conceptible  by 
men,  as  necessarily  existent  in  the  Creator,  Su- 
preme God,  and  Divine  Father, —  Holiness,  Jus- 
tice, Love,  with  all  the  attendant  attributes  and 
graces,  in  antagonism  to  sin;  in  inflexibility  and  un- 
changeableness  of  non-interference  with  any  of  its 
natural,  its  penal  consequences,  save  on  the  condition 
of  repentance;  in  pity,  mercy,  tenderness,  patience, 
forbearance  with  the  sinner  to  the  last.  God  intended 
that  all  these  qualities  of  His  nature,  human  as  well 
as  divine,  should  be  manifested  through  this  theoph- 
any.  God  was  ,  therefore  .  in  Christ,  reconciling  the 
world  unto  Himself.  What  Jesus  did  or  said,  God 
did  and  said  unto  men.     This  is  avowed;  and  if  the 


36  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

Bible  is  to  determine  theological  belief,  then  t<^)  its 
testimony  men  must  adhere. 

Did  Jesus  not  intend,  that  the  Parable  of  the  Prod- 
igal Son  should  specifically  reveal  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  in  relation  to  His  prodigal  children?  and  that 
the  sole,  simple  condition  of  their  forgiveness  by  Him 
was  *'the  godly  sorrow  which  worketh  repentance 
unto  salvation — repentance  unregretted?"  II  Cor.  \^i: 
10.  At  what  point  in  that  story,  does  any  theory  of  a 
so-termed  atonement  and  requisite  come  in,  unless  it 
is  interwoven  in  the  warp  and  woof  of  the  narrative 
itself — illustrative  of  the  infinite  patience,  long-suffei'- 
ing,  forbearance  and  sacrificial  love  of  the  Father 
towards  the  sinning  child — representative  of  His  con- 
duct to  every  returning  prodigal?^     Atonement  is  a 

I.  Atonement — reconciliation,  is  a  change  wrought  in  us,  a 
change  by  ^vhich  ^ve  are  reconciled  to  God. — Dr.  Bushnell. 

Dr.  Bushnell,  in  his  discourse  before  the  Divinity  School  at 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  on  the  Atonement,  rejecting  the  substitutional, 
expiatory,  ransom,  governmental,  expression  theories,  declares  .that 
the  Scriptures  advance  two  distinct  views  of  Christ  and  His  work, 
— "double,  subjective  objective" — which  are  radically  one  and  the 
same. 

(i)  A  subjective,  speculative, — one  that  contemplates  the  work 
of  Christ  in  its  ends,  and  views  it  as  a  power  related  to  its  ends. 

This  he  bases  on  his  text,  I  John  i :  2,  and  such  passages  as  John 
xviii :  37 ;  xiv :  6 ;  Acts  iii :  20-26 ;  Titus  ii :  14 ;  II  Cor.  v :  19. 

(2)  An  objective,  ritualistic, — one  that  sets  Him  forth  to  faith 
instead  of  philosophy,  and  one  without  which,  as  an  Altar  Form 
for  the  soul,  He  wovild  not  be  the  power  intended,  or  work  the 
ends  appointed. 

In  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans,  the  Galatians,  the  Hebrews, 
those  of  Peter  and  John,  this  altar  view  or  form  of  Christ,  appears 
—even  as  the  eminent  or  supereminent  truth  of  the  Gospel. 


THE   ATONEMENT   IS   RECONCILIATION.  37 

term  found  only  once  (Kom.  v:  11)  in  tlie  old  English 
version  of  the  New  Testament,  and  the  original  term, 
TTjv  xaraXXayijv^  is  more  correctly  translated,  the  recon- 
ciliation, in  the  New,  as  is  the  verbal  form  of  it  in 
the  previous  tenth  verse  of  both  the  Old  and  New 
Versions.  It  is  thus  rendered  in  its  nominal  and  ver- 
bal forms,  II  Cor.  v:  18-19.  And,  were  the  various 
atonements  (coverings  of  sin)  so  often  specified  in 
the  Levitical  ordinances,  intended  to  be  more  than 
expiations  for  transgressions,  ceremonial  and  ritual  ? 

"It  is  of  little  purpose,"  declares  the  Bampton 
lecturer  for  1832,  "  to  urge  the  natural  placability  of 
the  Divine  Being,  His  mercy.  His  willingness  to  re- 
ceive the  penitent.  God,  no  doubt,  is  abundantly 
placable,  merciful  and  forgiving.  Still,  the  fact  re- 
mains. The  offender  is  guilty:  his  crime  may  be  for- 
given, but  his  criminality  is  upon  him.  .  .  .  "We 
cannot  be  at  peace  without  some  consciousness  of 
atonement  made.  .  .  .  The  human  heart  is  inex- 
orable against  itself.  .  .  .  God  may  forgive  it, 
but  it  cannot  forgive  itself." 

The   original    word,^  rendered    atonement  in  the 

I.  The  Hebrew  verb  ca;phar  means  literally  » to  cover  over " 
sin.  It  is  never  used  of  the  expiation  or  blood-shedding  considered 
objectively,  but  of  the  results  accruing  from  it  to  the  sinner.  .  . 
The  sacrifice  was  not  the  atonement,  but  the  means  by  which 
atonement  was  made.  Therefore,  "  the  preposition  which  marks 
substitution  is  never  used  in  connection  with  the  word  capharP 
(Girdlestone's  Synonyms.)  .  .  .  Making  reconciliation,  or 
atonement,  therefore,  according  to  the  Scriptural  use  of  the  word, 
implies  the  removal  of  the  practical  estrangement  between  the 
sinner  and  God — the  obtaining  forgiveness  for  the  sin. —  The 
Coming  Prince. — Robert  Anderson^  LL.  D. 


38  THE  CHRIST   IN  LIFE. 

Old  Testament,  means  the  covering  of  siriy  which 
certain  theorists  of  the  Christian  era,  in  order  to 
make  the  analogy,  between  the  Law  of  Moses  and  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  .  the  Christ,  as  means  for  the  rectifi- 
cation of  men,  and  their  final  salvation  .  complete; 
and.  to  balance  or  offset  the  inevitable,  legitimate 
penalty  of  sin  through  the  sufferings  and  death  of 
Jesus, — have  enlarged,  with  the  addition  of  compen- 
sation, satisfaction,  substitution,  equivalence.  The 
English  word,  as  has  been  stated,  appears  once  only 
in  the  Old  Version  of  the  New  Testament,  and  its 
original  Greek,  rijv  xaraXXayijv,  simply  means  reconcili- 
ation, as  it  is  rendered  in  the  New  Version.  By  the 
expression,  "  the  fact  remains,  his  criminality  is  upon 
him,"  it  is  supposed^  the  writer  intends  simply  to 
affirm,  that  though  the  sinner  is  forgiven  by  God 
upon  the  manifestation  of  his  Godly  contrition,  the 
guilt, with  its  consequences, — one  of  which,  besides 
its  befitting  legal  penalty,  is  its  eternal  remembrance 
by  the  sinner, — still  remains  ineradicable,  unstayed, 
unbalanced,  uncancelled,  irremediable;  and  that  it 
will  continue  thus,  and  the  evil  therefrom  never  be 
eliminated,  save  through  the  atonement,  so-expressed, 
of  the  Lord  Jesus — the  Christ.  But  surely  the 
Bampton  lecturer  will  not  deny,  that  that  portion  of 
them  involving  the  specific  penalty  upon  the  sinner 
for  his  guilt  has  been  removed  by  the  forgiveness  of 
the  Divine  Father,  upon  Godly  contrition?  He  cer- 
tainly cannot  contend,  that  the  remembrance  of  guilt 
can  be  eradicated  from  the  sinner's  mind  by  the 
atonement,  so  conceived  and  expressed,  of  the  Lord 
— the  Christ?    His  forgiven,  saved  ones  .in  Heaven, 


SIN  CAN  BE  FOEGIVEN,  BUT  NOT  FORGOTTEN.         39 

are  represented  in  the  Kevelations  as  being  unceas- 
ingly jubilant  in  tlie  remembrance  of  the  forgiveness 
of  their  sins,  and  for  their  realized  salvation.  Gen- 
eral consequences  of  sin  upon  others, —  upon  the 
Universe  at  large,  remain  unstayed.  True,  the  re- 
pentant, saved  sinner  will  not  be  the  stalwart  saint  in 
the  Heavenly  life,  that  he  might  be,  had  he  not 
sinned.  His  soul  will  take  with  it  the  scars  of  the 
ravages  of  its  sins.  It  will  be  crippled  to  that  extent 
in  spiritual  advance;  but  it  will  not  be  dismissed  into 
the  "outer  darkness"  of  the  incorrigible.  As  the 
saved  one  can  not,  does  not,  forget  his  deliverance 
from  the  specific  penalty  of  his  guilt, — the  conditions 
upon  which  he  was  enabled  to  obtain  it  from  the 
good  and  the  merciful  God;  so.  he  can  not  forget 
that  guilt. 

If  it  be  a  portion  of  the  mission  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
to  this  earth, — by  His  life,  suffering  and  death,  be- 
sides the  manifestation  of  God, — of  His  love;  of  His 
patience;  of  His  forbearance;  of  His  tenderness;  of 
His  readiness  to  forgive  every  sinner  upon  the  exhi- 
bition of  the  Godly  contrition  required; — if  it  be,  to 
eliminate  from  the  Universe  the  evils  pure  and  inter- 
mingled with  those  general  consequences; — it  would 
seem  to  be,  if  it  were  not  presumptions  thought  in  a 
finite,  an  object  befitting  for  the  consummation  of 
that  glorious  mission.  There  are  some  Scriptural 
intimations  to  that  effect, — that  evil,  finally,  will  dis- 
appear, and  good  be  triumphant.  If  good  is  upon 
the  gain  against  evil .  the  ratio  of  advance  being  as- 
certained, if  digits  enough  in  succession  could  be 
arrayed,  and  were  computable  by  the  human  mind. 


40  THE  CHKIST  IN   LIFE. 

the  period  of  that  consummation  might  be  indicated. 
The  progressing  sanctification  of  an  individual  is  a 
prophecy  of  the  good  time  coming.  But  logic  jhuman 
and  inexorable  might  affirm,  that  general  conse- 
quences of  events  and  actions  in  matter  or  mind, — 
though  the  specifically  penal  ones  may  be,  in  the  way 
indicated,  cannot  ^-save  always  with  the  reserve  of 
Almighty  interposition, —  be  stayed  or  eliminated 
out  of  the  course  of  things. 

Eemembrances  of  guilt  are  not,  can  not  .be  annihi- 
lated or  stifled  upon  its  forgiveness;  nor  could  they 
be,  upon  the  presumption  of  the  indestructibility  of 
the  memory,  upon  such  alleged  atonement.  Would 
it  be  necessary,  or  even  desirable?  The  sinner's 
heart  Avould  be  just  as  "inexorable  against  itself," 
after  such  atonement  through  the  "sacrificial,"  "com- 
pensatory," "satisfactory,"  "equivalent,"  "substi- 
tuted "  sufferings  and  death  of  the  Christ,  as  it  would 
be,  after  the  forgiveness  of  God  in  Him,  upon  his 
Godly  contrition.  The  "  criminality  •'  as  a  fact  "  re- 
mains " — rests  upon  the  sinner,  though  he  has  re- 
pented and  been  forgiven  by  his  God.  It  is  covered^ 
by  a  figure,  though,  from  official  notice,  and  is  con- 
doned upon  Godly  contrition ;  the  man  is  made  new, 
receives  a  new  name,  but  the  abstract  fact  of  crimin- 
ality "remains."  If  the  criminality  "remains"  a 
charge  against  the  penitent,  as  well  as  against  the 
impenitent — unatoned  for,  unbalanced,  uncancelled, 
what  advantage  hath  the  contrite  over  the  obdurate  ? 

Will  the  knowledge  and  the  reflection,  that  an  inno- 
cent sufferer,  human  or  Deific,  paid  the  penalty  of 
one's  crime,  serve  to  diminish  his  heart's  inexorable- 


FORGIVENESS, — NO  EXPIATION.  41 

ness  against  itself,  and  bring  peace  to  his  troubled 
soul?  Would  tliey  not  rather  serve  to  intensify  that 
inexorableness,  and  put  far  ofP  that  peace  ?  In  pro- 
portion as  the  repentant,  the  regenerate  and  the 
sanctified — saved  soul  comes  to  the  full  realization  of 
the  awful  price  alleged  to  be  paid  (commercially)  for 
its  redemption,  so  much  more  exquisite  must  be  its 
regret,  if  not  remorse ;  so  much  more  will  "  the  heart 
be  inexorable  against  itself." 

It  is  feared,  that  the  advocates  of  such  theory  of 
salvation,  though  God-fearing  and  Christ-loving,  have 
not  yet  discarded  that  anthropopathic  conception  of 
God,  indicated  in  Ps.  1:21,  regarding  Him  as  an  in- 
finite, still,  imperfect  Man.  What  doth  He  affirm  of 
Himself?  I. even!,  am  He  that  blotteth  out  thy 
transgressions  ,.  for  Mine  own  sake,  and  will  not  re- 
member (to  charge  against  thee)  thy  sins.  Put  Me 
in  remembrance;  let  us  plead  together;  declare  thou, 
that  thou  may  est  be  justified.  Isaiah  xlii :  25-26.  The 
Lord  is  long  suffering  and  of  great  mercy,  forgiving 
iniquity  and  transgression,  and  by  no  means  clearing 
the  guilty, — visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  apon 
the  children  ^.  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation. 
Numbers  xiv:18;  Ex.  xxxiv;7.  Wonderful  conde- 
scension, love,  compassion  and  tenderness!  Justice, 
indefectible,  unimpeachable! 

"There  is  nothing  in  repentance,"  declares  the 
Bampton  lecturer  for  1842,  "which  can  be  certain] y 
retrospective  or  truly  expiatory."  'Tis  very  true. 
But  is  an  expiation  of  sin  possible  through  the  suf- 
fering of  its  penalty  by  another,  even  if  it  can  be 
commensurate  with  the  violation  of  the  moral  law; 


42  THE  CHRIST   IN  LIFE. 

{Hid  even  if  it  be  by  au  innocent  One,  and  He  Deific? 
Expiation  of  sin  is  not  possible,  unless  expiation  be 
through,  or  the  result  of  forgiveness  upon  Godly 
contrition.  It  can't  be  atoned  for  really  or  commer- 
cially. It  can  only  be  forgiven, —  and  its  conse- 
quences, save  with  the  remission  of  the  specific  pen- 
alty upon  the  individual  transgressor,  must  travel  on, 
until  the  Almighty  chooses  to  eliminate  their  evil 
pure  and  commingled  from  His  Universe.  Deeds — 
in  thought,  word,  act,  are  irrevocable.  The  Bampton 
lecturer's  "fact"  of  "criminality"  "remains," — as  he 
avers. 

If  sacrificial  offerings  in  sporadic  cases,  under  the 
Mosaic  dispensation,  were  presented  as  truthful  indic- 
atives of  inward  penitential  sorrow  for  real  sin,  in 
moral  act,  or  involved  in  any  ritual  transgression; 
God  doubtless  accepted  them, — to  the  extent  that 
they  were  a  portion  of  the  fruits  of  sorrow  required 
and  meet, — worthless  in  themselves  aside  from  such 
association;  to  be  regarded  as  merely  tokens  of  the 
inward  emotion  prescribed  and  experienced.  He  ever 
looks  beyond  into  the  innermost  recesses  of  the  soul, 
for  the  ^^eliable  indicatives  of  Godly  contrition  for 
sin. 

It  is  not  recorded,  that  Moses  offered  material  sac- 
rifices— as  proffered  expiations  or  atonements  for  the 
worship  of  the  molten  calf.  He  denounced  it  and 
confessed  it, — interceding  for  the  transgressors  with 
God.  God  Jievertheless .  destroyed  three  thousand  rep- 
resentatives of  them.  In  the  prayer  of  Solomon  at 
the  dedication  of  the  Temple,  no  specification  is  made 
of  the  requirement  of  the  shedding  of  blood  or  of 


SACRIFICES  OF  GOD  ARE  BROKEN  HEARTS.  43 

burnt-offerings,  as  atonement  or  expiation  for  sins 
that  might  be  committed  by  worshippers,  but  only  of 
sincere  repentance,  genuine  contrition.  David,  on 
on  coming  unto  a  realization  of  his  guilt,  did  not  at- 
tempt to  go  to  the  altar  with  the  shedding  of  blood,  or 
with  a  burnt-offering  as  a  sacrificial  expiation  for  his 
crimes;  but  cried  out  of  the  depths  of  remorse  and 
Godly  contrition:  Have  mercy  upon  me,  O  God,  ac- 
cording to  Thy  loving  kindness.  .  .  .  Blot  out 
my  transgression.  Wash  me  thoroughly  from  mine 
iniquity,  and  cleanse  me  from  my  sin.  For  I  ac- 
knowledge my  transgressions:  and  my  sin  is  ever 
before  me.  .  .  .  Deliver  me  from  blood  guilti- 
ness, O  God.  .  .  .  For  Thou  desirest  not  sacrifice, 
else  would  I  give  it.  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a 
broken  spirit;  a  broken  and  contrite  heart,  O  God, 
Thou  wilt  not  despise.  Ps.  li.  So  runs  through  the 
penitential  Psalms  the  trust  of  forgiveness  upon 
simple  Godly  sorrow  unto  repentance.  To  obey  is 
better  than  sacrifice,  said  Samuel  to  Saul,  and  to 
hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams.  I  Sam.  xv:22.  I  hate, 
I  despise  your  feast  days,  and  I  will  not  dwell  in  your 
solemn  assemblies;  though  ye  offer  Me  burnt-offerings 
and  your  meat-offerings,  I  will  not  accept  them; 
neither  will  I  regard  the  peace-offerings  of  your  fat 
beasts.  Amos  v:  21-22.  To  what  purpose  cometh 
there  to  me  incense  from  Sheba,  and  the  sweet  cane 
from  a  far  country?  Your  burnt-offerings  are  not 
acceptable,  nor  your  sacrifices  sweet  unto  me.  Jer. 
vi:  20.  For  I  desire  mercy  and  not  sacrifice,  and  the 
knowledge  of  God  more  than  burnt-offerings.  Hosea 
vi:6.     Shall  I  come  before  Him  with  burnt-offerings. 


44  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

with  calves  of  a  year  old?  Will  the  Lord  Ix^  pleased 
with  thousands  of  rams,  or  with  ten  thousands  of 
rivers  of  oil?  Shall  I  give  my  first-born  for  my 
transgression,  the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my 
soul  ?  What  doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to 
do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly 
with  thy  God?  Micahvi:6-8.  To  what  purpose  is 
the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  unto  Me?  saith  the 
Lord:  I  am  full  (to  loathing)  of  the  burnt-offerings 
of  rams,  and  tte  fat  of  fed  beasts ;  and  I  delight  not 
in  the  blood  of  bullocks,  or  of  lambs,  or  of  he-goats. 
.  .  .  Bring  no  more  vain  oblations :  incense  is  an 
abomination  unto  Me :  the  new  moons  and  Sabbaths, 
the  calling  of  assemblies,  I  cannot  away  with ;  U  is 
iniquiiy,  even  the  solemn  meeting.  Wash  ye,  make 
you  clean;  put  away  the  evil  from  before  Mine  eyes; 
cease  to  do  evil;  learn  to  do  well,  etc.  Isaiah  i.  The 
simple  condition  for  forgiveness  of  sins  real,  internal 
or  external,  from  Genesis  to  Malachi,  is  truly  repre- 
sented by  the  following  declaration : 

Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the  unrighteous 
man  his  thoughts;  and  let  him  return  unto  the  Lord, 
and  He  will  have  mercy  upon  him:  and  to  our  God, 
for  He  will  dbundantlii  pardon,  Isaiah  Iv: 7;  Ezekiel 
xviii:31;  xxxiii:10-lL 

After  the  Ascension,  it  is  true,  that  the  Apostles,  in 
their  preaching  and  teaching; — the  tragic  scenes  in 
Gethsemane,  in  the  Judgment  Hall,  and  on  Calvary, 
— above  all  other  remembrances,  being  always  most 
prominent  and  vivid  in  memory;  and  having  become 
fully  persuaded  that  their  Master  was  God  in  the 
Christ    Who  thus  suffered  and  gave  Himself  for  the 


"  BLOOD," — THE  REPRESENTATIVE  OF  LIFE.  45 

life  of  the  world  (John  vi:51),  very  often  associated, 
in  the  familiar  phraseology  of  the  Hebrew  Ritual, 
the  forgiveness  of  sin  and  the  salvation  of  the  sinner 
with  the  shed  blood  of  the  Christ, — evidently  deriving 
the  peculiar  phraseology  and  its  association  from  His 
impressive  and  memorable  declarations  in  John  vi : 
50-56,  and  in  the  institution  of  the  Eucharist.  Matth. 
xxvi:28,  Markxiv:24,  Luke  xxii:20,  John  vi: 50-56, 
Acts  xx:28,  Rom.  iii:25,  v:9,  10,  12,  I  Cor.  x:16,  xi: 
25-27,  IlCor.  v:21,  Eph.  i:7,  ii:13,  Gal.  iii:13,  Col. 
i:20,  Heb.  i:3,  ix:12,  14,  15,  26,  28,  x:19,  xii:24,  xiii; 
12, 20,  I  Pet.  i :  2, 19,  ii :  24,  iii :  18,  iv :  1, 1  John  i :  7,  ii :  2, 
Rev.  i:5,  xiirll.  It  cannot  be  believed  however*  that 
either  He  or  they  intended  to  teach,  that  the  salvation 
of  His  disciples,  or  of  sinning  men  in  genera]  was 
conditioned,  and  that  exclusively,  upon  His  literally 
shed  blood,  save  as  one  of  the  memorable  incidents, — 
the  inevitable  and  final  event  in  the  details  of  His 
mission.  For  vivid  and  compressed  expression,  by 
way  of  metonymy  or  synecdoche, — an  effect  for  a 
cause,  or  a  part  for  the  whole;  it  is  believed,  that  the 
words  "blood"  and  "shed"  were  used, — "blood"  for 
the  physical,  psychical  life  ^ — the  life  of  the  flesh  is  in 
the  blood,  Lev.  x\ii:ll; — the  body  entire,  or  inclusive 
of  the  entire  human  personality  of  Jesus, — His  hu- 
man body,   soul    and    spirit, — God  in  Christ;    and 

I.  Blood  is  the  fountain  of  life,  the  first  to  live  and  the  last  to 
die,  and  the  primary  seat  of  the  animal  soul.  ...  It  lives  and 
is  nourished  of  itself,  and  by  no  other  part  of  the  body. — Harvey. 

It  is  the  seat  of  life,  because  all  the  parts  of  the  frame  are  formed 
and  nourished  from  it. — Johyi  Hunter, — Rioted  by  Thomfson  in 
Bamfton  Lectures  on  The  Atonement. 


46  THE  CHKI8T  IN   LIFE. 

"shed,"  for  the  culminating  act  in  the  Tragedy.  It  is 
believed  .  also ..  that  the  thought  and  its  expression 
were  designed  to  specially  impress  the  Hebrews,  who 
in  their  ritual  services  had  been  educated  to  associate 
forgiveness  of  sins  ceremonial,  and  by  perversion,  of 
sins  real,  with  the  literally  shed  blood  of  certain 
beasts  and  birds. 

For  such  expression  of  individual  or  national  suf- 
fering and  death,  the  word  blood  has  abounded  in 
ancient  and  modern  literature  —  history,  oratory, 
poetry.  How  often  has  it  been  thus  employed,  in 
reference  to  American  soldiers  slain  in  the  first  and 
second  contests  with  England,  and  in  the  recent  Civil 
War!  Besides  its  sacrificial  association  in  the  Scrip- 
tures— between  one  and  two  hundred  times;  it,  or  its 
cognates,  from  its  first  use  by  God, — exclamatory  to 
Cain,  are  thus  employed  in  the  Bible.  It  is  not  be- 
lieved that  Jesus  or  His  disciples  used  it,  or  intended 
it  should  be  interpreted  otherwise  than  as  God  first 
used  it,  or  as  have  ordinary  sfjeakers  and  writers  in 
all  ages.  The  blood  of  Jesus  of  course  was  superla- 
tively precious, — material  and  of  like  composition 
with  that  which  courses  through  the  veins  of  all  men, 
since  it  was  that  of  the  body  in  which  God  had  incar- 
nated Himself,  and  since  it  was  the  life, — physical, 
perhaps  inclusive  of  the  psychical,  of  the  perfect 
Man, — God  in  the  Christ.  Perhaps,  Jesus,  it  may  be 
some  of  the  Apostles,  used  it  with  double  reference 
to  the  soul  and  spirit,  and  as  the  correlate  of  that 
eternal  life, — so  often  discoursed  about  and  empha- 
sized by  Him.  God  gave  unto  us  eternal  life,  and 
this  life  is  in  His  Son.     He  having  the  Son,  hath 


SALVATION,  THROUGH  GRACE,  UPON  REPENTANCE.    47 

the  life;   lie  having  not  the  Son,  hath  not  the  liEe. 
IJohnv.lO,  11. 

Until  the  declarations  in  John  vi:  50-56,  so  impres- 
sively reaffirmed  at  the  institution  of  the  Supper, — 
not  difficult  to  be  apprehended,  when  interpreted,  as 
designed,  symbolically, — the  recorded  conditions  of 
salvation,  as  previously  enunciated  by  Jesus  and  re- 
iterated by  His  Apostles  after  the  Ascension,  were 
simply  .belief  in  Him  as  the  Messiah — God  in  Christ, 
and  in  His  mission;  Luke  iv:18, 19;  Godly  contrition 
for  sin,  in  confession  .with  the  fruits  thereof  meet, — 
such  as  possible  restitution  of  what  had  been  un- 
righteously taken,  possible  undoing  of  any  wrong;  the 
cherishing  of  a  spirit  of  forgiveness;  and  the  bestow- 
ment  of  loving  words  and  deeds  upon  those  in  bodily 
or  spiritual  want.  Luke  has  thus  felicitously  and 
succinctly  grouped  the  specialties  of  His  mission: 
To  give  knowledge  of  salvation  unto  His  people  in 
the  remission  of  their  sins,  through  the  merciful 
Heart  of  our  God;  whereby  the  Day-Spring  from  on 
high  shall  visit  us  to  shine  upon  them  that  sit  in  dark- 
ness and  in  the  shadow  of  death,  to  guide  our  feet 
into  the  way  of  peace.     Luke  i:  77-79.^ 

I .  It  is  sufficient  to  refer,  in  addition,  to  Matth.  iii  :2,  8,  ir  tiy,  vi  :i4, 
ix:i3,  xi:28,  xii:5o,  xvi:24,  xviii:3,  32,  35,  xix:2i,  29,  xxi:32, 
XXV :  10,  21,  23,  40;  Mark  1:4,15,  ii:5,  17,  vi:i2,  ix:24,  37,  x:29, 
30,  xvi :  16 ;  Luke  v :  20,  32,  vi :  35,  37,  47,  48,  vii .  47,  50,  vii :  15,  ix : 
23,  x:27,  28,  xii:3i,  xiii:3,  5,  xiv:i7,  xv: 7,  11-32,  xvi: 30,(1)  xviii: 
13,  22,  29,  30,  xxiii:42,43,  xxiv:47;  John  1:12, 13,  iii: 5,  15-18,  vi: 
29>  35»  40>  47-58,  x:28,  xi:  25-27,  xiv:2i,  xvii:3,  xviii;37,  xx:  23; 
Acts  ii:  38,  iii:  19,  v:3i,  x:43,  xi:  18,  xiii:24,  38,  39,  xvi:3i,  xvii: 
30,  xix:4,  xx:2i,  xxvi:i7,  18,20;  Rom.  x:9,  10;  II  Cor.  vii:  10; 
Heb.  v:9;I  John  v:i,2;  II  Pet.  iii:9;  also  Revelations.  Citations 
in  "Light  of  Life,''  pp.  211-212 

(i)     This  Parable,  apparently,  doth  negative  any  hope  of  fost 


48  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

Even  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews — the  grand 
arsenal  for  the  weaponry  of  those,  who  condition  the 
forgiveness  and  the  salvation  of  the  sinner  .  on  the 
literally  shed  blood  of  Jesus;  or  .who  are  constantly 
reiterating  the  phraseology  in  their  homilies:     "Sal- 

viortcm  probation.  It  is  evident,  that  the  heart  of  Dives  in  Hades 
■was  in  a  corrigible  state ;  it  was  at  least  softened  bj  his  expe- 
riences there ;  his  solicitude  was  intense,  that  his  five  brethren  on 
earth  should  be  prevented,  by  the  mission  and  testimony  of  Laza- 
rus, from  coming  to  that  place  of  anguish.  It  was  thus  indicated, 
that  his  case  was  suitable  for  the  extension  of  Divine  forgiveness, 
and  consequent  salvation, — if  he  was  still  in  probation,  and  his 
condition  not  utterly  hopeless,  remediless.  But,  the  reply  of 
Abraham  is  fearfully  significant:  "Between  us  and  you,"  not 
only  that  "  there  is  a  great  chasm,"  but  that  it  is  "  fixed  " — impass- 
able, immovable, — so  that  it  was  impossible  for  inmate  of  one  to 
pass  to  inmate  of  the  other ;  and  in  his  summary,  decisive  closing 
of  the  interlocution :  *'  They  have  Moses  and  the  Prophets ;  let 
them  hear  them."  But  "if  one  from  the  dead  should  go  unto 
them,  they  will  repent,"  responded  Dives.  Then  came  the  final, 
utterly  hopeless  declaration :  "  If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the 
Prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded,  should  one  rise  from  the 
dead." 

Jesus  would  not  have  given  this  partial  disclosure  of  the  spiritual 
state,  had  it  not  been  a  truthful  representation,  whether  there  was 
such  colloquy  between  such  persons,  or  whether  it  was  conceived 
and  thus  concisely  expressed,  for  effective  impression.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  in  the  other  life  such  reflections  are  experienced, 
and  that  such  cries  are  inwardly  or  outwardly  expressed. 

Can  there  be  any  other  inference,  than  that  there  is  no  post 
mortem  probation .?  Even  this  side  of  the  nether  world,  it  some- 
times, if  not  often  has  occurred  that  probationers  have  lost  for- 
ever priceless  blessings,  in  exchange  for  transient  pleasure  of  the 
body,  or  of  the  unsanctified  soul,  and  "found  no  place  for  repent- 
ance, though  they  sought  most  earnestly  for  it,"  and  "  with  tears.'' 
Heb.  xii:  i6,  17. 


"salvation  through  blood."  49 

vation  by  the  blood!"  "No  salvation  save  by 
blood!" — in  isolation  from  other  specified  conditions, 
and  other  tragic  incidents  in  His  life,  death,  resurrec- 
tion and  ascension — illustrating  and  enforcing  the 
stress  placed  by  the  types  and  analogies  under  the 
Levitical  law, — quoting  from  Heb.  ix:22,  which  spe- 
cifically declares,  addressing  Hebrew  believers,  that 
according  to  said  law,  apart  from  shedding  of  blood, 
there  is  no  remission;  in  this  same  Episfle,  the  posi- 
tive declaration  is  made :  For  it  is  impossible,  that 
the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats  should  take  away  sins ; 
.  .  .  and  every  priest  standeth  daily  officiating, 
and  offering  frequently  the  same  sacrifices,  loMch 
can  never  take  away  sins.    Heb.  x:4,  11. 

The  logic,  the  conclusion  and  the  appeal  of  the 
Apostle  in  these  ninth  and  tenth  chapters,  as  in  fact^. 
other  portions,  are  specifically  to  the  Hebrews — in 
question,  whether  Jesus  was  in  fact  the  anticipated 
Messiah;  and  whether  the  Christian  Dispensation 
was  to  take  the  place  of  the  abrogated  Levitical, — as 
the  Apostle  had  argued,  and  they  are  simply  a  fortiori. 
"For  if  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats,"  etc. — "How 
much  more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ,"  etc.  If  you 
thought  there  could  be  efficacy  for  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  ceremonial,  or  even  real,  in  the  shed  blood  of 
bulls  and  goats,  how  much  more,  etc.,  in  the  shed 
blood  of  Jesus — your  expected,  predicted,  realized 
Messiah?  He  has  become  your  High  Priest  forever 
after  the  order  of  Melchisedec.  But  then,  he  adds, 
the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats  cannot  take  away  sins. 
The  inferential  teaching  is:  material  blood — brute  or 


60  THE  CHRIST   IN  LIFE. 

human,  even  that  of  Jesus,  for  it  likewise  was  material 
and  human,  cannot  take  away  sins.  The  shedding  of 
His  blood  was  the  culmination  of  the  tragedy  of  His 
bodily  mission.  He  died  for, — His  blood  was  shed 
by  moral  consequence ,.  for,  on  account  of  your  sins, 
and  the  sins  of  the  entire  world.  The  figures  are 
material,  and  the  language  is  symbolic.  Had  men 
not  sinned,  there  would  have  been  no  necessity  for 
the  shedding  of  His  blood, — that  the  Deific  One  in 
the  fleshly  manifestation  should  die.  But,  that 
sacrifice,  self-denial,  suffering,  from  the  Manger 
to  the  Cross  .having  been  designed  in  the  last 
resort  (Matth.  xxi:37,  Mark  xii:6,  Luke  xx:13)  as 
means  to  impress  sinners,  that  God  was  thus  in  this 
Christ,  endeavoring  to  reconcile  them  to  Himself, — 
the  most  vi^dd  and  impressive  illustration  of  His  un- 
conditioned love  that  could  be  given,  as  is  conceived, 
— ocular  proof  and  palpable  demonstration;  and 
these  means  proving  to  be  the  direct  or  indirect  in- 
strumentality, through  which,  and  the  Spirit's  appli- 
cation and  enforcement,  we  have  been  made  to  realize 
our  sinful  and  helpless  condition,  to  cry  for  help  and 
deliverance,  and  to  receive  it; — truly  and  fittingly  it 
can  be  said,  our  repentance,  forgiveness  and  salva- 
tion, by  compression  and  for  pungency,  and  by  a 
figure, — an  effect  for  a  cause,  a  part  for  the  whole — 
were  wrought  through  His  blood.  Hebrew  and  Gen- 
tile alike  are  saved  only  through  trust  in  Him  .7— God 
manifest  Who  alone  can  forgive  sins.  His  blood 
represents  His  life,  not  only  physical,  psychical,  but 
spiritual.  He  is  our  life  (Col.  iii:3,  4)  if  we  trust  in 
Him  for  forgiveness  on  evidenced  contrition. 


SALVATION — THROUGH  FORGIVING  GRACE.  51 

Thus,  it  is  evident,  that,  in  unity  and  concord  with 
the  presumptions  of  natural  reason,  throughout  the 
Bible,  the  chief  condition  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins 
was  Godly  sorrow  for  them,  conjoined  with  all  that  is 
involved  in  emotion  and  act.  True,  the  effects  of  sin 
upon  others,  and  the  Universe  itself,  would  not  be 
stayed,  as  we  can  apprehend; — that  is,  natural  se- 
quence in  the  spiritual  as  in  the  materia]  ,must  ensue 
and  ever  travel  on.  Nature,  heartless  materiality  or 
immateriality,  has  no  forgiveness  for  transgressions 
against  its  laws.  Whether  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus 
— whether  the  manifestation  of  the  sacrificial  love  of 
God  the  Father,  in  addition  to  the  remedial  means 
provided  for  the  salvation  of  His  prodigal  children, 
were  designed  also  to  counteract  and  ultimately  to 
utterly  annihilate  the  malign  influences,  as  well  as  to 
cancel  the  results  of  the  unbalanced  sins  of  the  peni- 
tent's past,  are  unsolved  mysteries  as  yet.  In  Eomans 
viii:21,  22,  as  in  the  Parables  of  the  Tares,  and  the 
Drag  Net,  are  intimations  in  that  direction. 

Jesus  is  the  only  Savior  .of  course  since  He  was 
God  thus  manifest,  and  as  such,  of  His  paternal  at- 
tributes and  emotions, — in  His  speech,  actions,  suffer- 
ing, death,  resurrection  and  ascension.  Thus  the 
repenting  sinner  may  truly  trust  in  Him  as  his  per- 
sonal Savior;  and  by  figure  after  the  Levitical  type, 
it  is  repeated,  for  compression  of  statement,  and  as 
the  vividest  representative  of  all  the  combined  inci- 
dents in  His  suffering  life  and  death, — culminating  in 
this  on  the  Cross;  and  chiefly  for  impression  on  He- 
brew believers,  in  whose  thought  the  forgiveness  of 
sins,  ritual  and  real  had  ever  been  associated  with 


52  THE  CHltlST  IN   LIFE. 

the  shedding  of  blood;  the  repenting  sinner  may  be 
said  to  be  saved  through  the  blood — that  is,  the  death 
or  the  life  of  Jesus, — through  both,  since  as  is  Scrip- 
tui-ally  affirmed:  "The  blood  is  the  life."  It  was 
not  intended  surely  that  the  phraseology  should  be 
literally  interpreted  and  applied,  viz:  that  the  sinner 
can  be  saved  through  the  shedding  of  this  material 
blood,  and  that  blood  only, — exclusively  of  His  human 
or  Divine  life,  speech  and  actions.  His  resurrection 
and  ascension,  and  of  His  renewing  and  sanctifying 
grace  through  the  Spirit.  Indeed,  the  Apostle  in 
Romans  v:10,  after  stating.,  that  believers  were  recon- 
ciled to  God  through  the  death  of  His  Son,  also  de- 
clares that  having  been  reconciled  they  shall  be 
saved  through  His  life.  Men  are  not  saved  by  His 
material  or  spiritual  sufferings  at  all, — by  the  expen- 
diture commercially  ,of  so  much  blood,  so  much 
scourging,  so  much  excruciation  of  body,  soul  and 
spirit,  from  His  baptism  in  the  Jordan  to  His  passion 
on  the  Cross.  It  could  not  be.  These  are  exhibitions, 
proofs  by  illustration,  of  the  undying  love,  the  untir- 
ing patience,  the  exquisite  tenderness,  the  unceasing 
readiness  to  forgive,  on  the  part  of  God  in  the  Christ 
— manifestations  as  best  they  could  be  of  the  suffer- 
ing with  which  the  Father's  heart  is  wrung,  in  reali- 
zation of  the  waywardness  of  a  prodigal  child — feeble 
representatives  of  what  it  thus  cost — by  a  commercial 
figure,  to  save  him. 

To  repeat  again :  Forgiveness  ensues  upon  the  ac- 
ceptance by  the  sinner  of  its  perpetual  conditions, — 
Godly  contrition  with  its  manifested  fruits.  In  such 
sorrow  is  involved  the  spiritual  palingenesia  required — 


SORROWS  OF  PARENTS — OVER  WAYWARD  CHILDREN.   53 

— ^preceding,  simultaneous  or  succeeding,  as  the  mys- 
tery of  the  point  of  time  may  be.  Salvation  is 
through  forgiveness,  thus  conditioned.  God  having 
anciently  spoken  unto  the  Fathers  in  the  Prophets  by 
various  portions  and  in  various  ways  hath,  in  these 
last  days  spoken  unto  us  by  His  Son.  Heb.  i :  2. 
God  was  in  this  Son  thus  endeavoring  to  reconcile 
the  world  unto  Himself.  The  world  is  summoned  to 
believe  on  Him,  since  all  previous  manifestations  of 
Him  in  the  material  creation,  through  angels  and 
men,  and  declarations  from  Him  through  them,  had 
failed  to  arrest  the  world  in  its  fearfully  downward 
career; — mankind  are  summoned  to  believe  in  this 
Christ  as  God  Himself  in  manifestation. 

The  sufferings  of  paternal,  maternal  hearts,  good 
and  large,  are  inexpressible;  the  visible  effects  on  the 
body,  soul  and  spirit,  on  account  of  a  conscience 
seared,  spirit-abandoned,  lost  child,  are  terrible  in 
realization,  witness  or  conception.  Can  there  be  a 
scene  more  appalling,  more  torturing  to  a  father's  or 
mother's  heart? — a  soul  incarnated  in  a  body — ^bone 
of  thy  bone  and  flesh  of  thy  flesh!  not  only  the  body, 
but  the  soul  itself  bearing  the  stamp  of  heredity ! 
thou  didst  beget,  thou  didst  bear,  thou  didst  fondle, 
nourish  and  pet  until  budding  maturity!  thine  own 
child  turning  its  back  on  thee,  and  all  that  is  sweet, 
pure  and  ennobling!  on  God,  Heaven  and  the  Angels! 
inevitably  on  the  down  grade,  and  swift  to  perdition! 
— Lost? — It  may  be,  lost  forever!  ^ 

I.  The  great  defect  in  American  families  of  this  day,  is  want 
of  government,  and  the  responsibility,  it  Is  believed,  rests  upon 
very  many  of  the  mothers,  who,  unduly  swayed  by  their  impulses 


54  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

Ah  God!  can  there  be  suffering,  mental,  spiritual 
— save  from  remorse,  more  intense? 

But,  suffering  in  quantity,  quality,  intensity,  is 
measured  by  capacity.  Consider  a  parent  mentally  and 
emotionally  endowed  as  was  Edmund  Burke;  that  the 
heart  strings  as  were  his  may  be  strung  to  such  ten- 
sion that  they  quiver  as  an  ^olian  harp  to  the  slightest 
touch  of  emotion.  When  all  is  well  with  the  loved 
boy,  in  body,  soul,  culture,  outlook;  from  those  chords 
come  chimes  and  trills,  as  if  brushed  by  angel  wings, 
or  swept  by  airs  from  Heaven.  But  .further  suppose, 
that  upon  such  a  father's  mind,  heart  and  cultui-e, 
there  has  been  the  super-touch  and  finish  of  the  Lord 

and  sympathies,  are  unwilling  that  the  children  should  be  made 
to  obey  without  question.  They  interfere  with  authority  attempt- 
ed to  be  exercised ; — of  course,  authority  is  broken  down.  The 
plagues  resultant,  will  ever  be  seen  in  the  subsequent  history  of 
those  children,  and  in  society  and  government  which  they  pro- 
portionally  corrupt.  American  families  might  be  instructed  by 
God's  regimen  of  His  children,  especially  His  selected  ones.  In 
the  infancy,  youthhood  of  their  spiritual  attainments,  He  pre- 
scribed immediate  and  constant  obedience,  without  assignment  of 
reasons.  Jesus  Himself  forbore  to  reveal  many  things  to  His  dis- 
ciples in  the  flesh,  because  they  could  not  then  bear — comprehend 
them.  They  were  children  in  capacity  for  spiritual  apprehension. 
Obedience  tvitlwut  question!  It  would  be  a  great  blessing  to  Amer- 
ican boys,  if  for  this  purpose  only,  they  were  subjected  for  a  short 
season  to  military  discipline,  as  are  German  youth.  Matth.  viii: 
8-9;  Luke  vii:  7-8.  Character  is  founded  on  habit.  Habit  is  sel- 
dom eradicated  or  changed. 

The  boy  w  ho  has  never  learned  to  obey  a  rule  when  he  was  six 
or  eight  years  old,  will  not  obey  anything  very  early,  be  it  rule  or 
principle,  when  he  is  twenty.  No!  education  must  begin  with 
the  discipline  of  the  law,  with  tender  discipline  if  you  will,  but 
still  with  real  discipline,  if  it  is  to  end  safely  in  the  freedom  of  a 
life  of  principle. — Canon  Liddon. 


SORROWS  OF  THE  DIVINE  FATHER  AND  MOTHER.      55 

Jesus  Christ  Himself — so  that,  through  His  refining 
spirit,  the  sensibilities  have  become  susceptible  to 
the  utmost. 

Now  let  this  boy — ushered  into  being  under  such 
auspicious  circumstances,  such  inspiring  condition*, 
with  such  magnificent  possibilities,  enter  upon  a  ca- 
reer of  dissipation.  Let  him  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the 
incessant,  tender  pleadings  and  remonstrances  of  such 
a  father  and  such  a  mother!  let  him  plunge  deeper 
and  deeper  into  excesses,  into  soul-damning  practices, 
till  all  self-respect  is  gone!  till  he  wallows  like  a 
brute!  till  he  defies  and  blasphemes  his  Maker!  till 
he  is  even  unmoved,  leers,  scorns  and  curses  even  in 
the  presence  of  those  who  begat  him !  till  he  is  con- 
science seared,  God  abandoned!  till  demons  even 
here  take  possession  of  him!  till  he  has  reached  the 
brink  of  perdition,  about  to  take  the  awful  plunge! 
Ah  God!  what  must  such  a  father,  such  a  mother 
suffer! 

Deep,  low  monotones,  groans,  moans  of  despair, 
wail  from  those  heart  strings — They  snap  in  a  jangle! 
— They  are  silent  forever! 

Now  pass  by  one  leap  from  attempted  consider- 
ation of  the  sufferings  of  an  earthly  parent,  thus  de- 
veloped and  refined  r— on  account  of  a  depraved  son, 
to  attempted  thought  upon  what  must  be  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  Divine  Father  and  Mother,^  —  the  Al- 

I.  El^  the  root  of  Elohim^  the  name  under  which  God  was 
known  to  the  Israelites  prior  to  their  entry  into  Canaan,  signifies 
the  masculine  sex  only;  while  Jahveh,  or  Jehovah^  denotes 
both  sexes  in  combination. 

The  two-fold  name  of  Jehovah  also  finds  a  correspondence  in 


66  THE  CHRIST   IN  LIFE. 

mighty  God, — Infinite  Love  Itself,  under  Its  impul- 
ses, making  all  things,  men  in  His  own  image — a 
little  lower  than  the  angels,  thi'oning  them  in  the  Uni- 
verse with  such  possibilities;  suffering Sy  on  account, 
not  only  of  the  lapse  of  one,  but  of  all  the  myriads  of 
the  human  family ! 

He  foresaw  it,  why  did  He  create?  Why  did  He 
not  prevent  ? 

The  mystery  ^  can't  be  grappled  with.  Let  it  alone — 
Touch  it  not.  Hush!  'Tis  a  funereal  hour.  List  to  the 
muffled  wailings  o'er  lost  souls  and  a  ruined  world! 

Facts  and  their  consequences  are  alone  for  consid- 
eration.— Wait! 

The  sorrows  and  sufferings  of  finite  human  love! 
The  sorrows  and  sufferings  of  Infinite,  Deific  Love! 
They  are  beyond  conception. — They  are  beyond 
compare. 

Suffering!  physical  suffering!  'Twas  exquisite,  pro- 

the  Arddka — Nari^  or  incarnation  of  Brahma,  who  is  represented 
in  sculptures  as  combining  in  himself  the  male  and  female  organ- 
isms .  .  .  Aryan,  Scandinavian,  and  Semitic  religions  were 
alike  pervaded  by  it. —  The  Keys  of  the  Creeds. 

Keshub  Chunder  Sen  proclaimed  the  ^'Motherhood  of  God"  as 
an  idea  correlative  with  that  of  the  divine  Fatherhood.  "  Many 
are  ready  to  worship  Me  as  their  Father,"  he  makes  the  Divinity 
say,  "But  they  know  not  that  I  am  their  Mother,  too;  tender,  in- 
dulgent, forbearing,  forgiving.  Ye  shall  go  forth  from  village  to 
village,  singing  My  mercies  and  proclaiming  unto  all  men,  that  I 
am  India's  Mother."  As  a  result  of  this,  a  band  of  twenty-five 
persons,  among  whom  were  nine  missionaries,  quitted  Calcutta  on 
the  24th  of  October,  1880,  and  traveled  about  250  miles  in  five 
weeks,  preaching  everywhere  the  Motherhood  of  God. — India 
Mirror^  etc.^  1880. — Quoted  by  Count  Goblet  d^  Alviella. 

I.     The  limitation  of  the  Finite  makes  evil  possible. — Leibnitz. 


SORROW  OF  THE  FATHER — THROUGH  THE  SON.   57 

tracted,  indescribable  through  that  sleepless  night, 
the  bloody  sweat  in  Gethsemane,  the  knotted  scourg- 
ing, the  crucifixion!  Suffering!  spiritual  suffering! 
'Tis  not  possible  to  conceive  it.  Others  before  Him 
and  since  have  passed  through  series  of  physical  tor- 
tures. Some — many  while  in  the  body  have  suf- 
fered the  tortures  of  the  damned,  in  remorse  for  their 
crimes.  But  on  this  One, — God  in  Him,  rested  the 
incubus  of  the  sorrows  of  that  Father  for  the  sins  of 
apostate  men — children  by  His  creation,  in  His  image, 
for  His  glory  involving  their  weal.  These  sorrows, 
it  must  be  noted  and  impressed,  were  not  the  suffer- 
ing consequences,  which  all  mankind  should  aggre- 
gately bear  for  their  sins — legitimately  or  statutorily 
made  penal  for  a  substitutional  purpose — which  penal 
consequences,  advocates  of  a  literal  atonement  by 
Jesus  the  Christ  allege  must  have  rested  and  pressed 
upon  Him  for  the  last  hours  in  Gethsemane,  and  on 
the  Cross, — as  if  it  were  possible;  but  the  suffering 
grief  of  the  Father,  thus  finally  manifested  for  the 
aggregate  ingratitude  and  rebellion  of  the  race  to 
that  hour, — children  He  had  made,  fostered,  and  ever 
blessed.  The  Incarnation  was  a  manifestation  and 
demonstration, — proof  palpable  to  sense  in  Human 
form,  and  for  spiritual  realization,  of  His  unceasing 
love  for  those  children,  notwithstanding  their  accu- 
mulating corruption.  In  Gethsemane  and  through 
the  Cross,  were  some  of  the  manifestations  of  all  that 
is  possible  to  human  appreciation  of  His  infinite  grief 
for  their  continued  rejection  of  Him,  as  their  God 
and  Father.  Under  these  sorrows.  He  writhed 
through  the  blackness  of  the  spiritual  darkness  to 


68  THE   CHRIST    IN    LIFE. 

the  culminating  cry  of  the  Human:  My  Godl  My 
God!  why  dost  Thou  abandon  Me?  The  earth  shiv- 
ered and  di'aped  itself  in  sympathy  with  the  wail. 
But  men  are  not  saved  through  these  sufferings,  as 
atoning  substitutes  or  equivalents  for  their  guilt. 
They  were  the  climax  of  all  the  sacrificial  instrumen- 
talities for  the  salvation  of  men,  fi-om  the  birth  of 
the  first  Adam  through  successive  generations  to 
the  crucifixion  of  the  Second, — the  personal  manifes- 
tation of  God  Himself  in  Jesus — His  Christ.  They 
were  the  greatest  manifestation,  as  is  conceived  to  be 
possible,  the  most  impressive  illustration  of  the  love 
of  God — the  Divine  Father,  for  His  rebellious  children. 
Such  sufferings  do  not,  cannot,  atone  for  men's  sins. 
They  are  the  divine  means  for  the  divine  ends, — not 
substitutes  or  equivalents  for  them.  Si7i  camwt  he 
atoned  for.  It  can  be  forgiven  upon  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Godly  contrition  required.  The  general 
consequence  of  the  violation  of  moral  law,  as  of  ma- 
terial,— sin,  must  abide  .  until  stayed  or  eliminated 
by  Almighty  interposition  from  the  constitution  and 
course  of  His  Universe.  To  do  this  may  be  a  por- 
tion of  the  mission  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  the 
earth.  As  human  logic  serves,  such  eradication  is 
not  possible,  save  as  with  God  all  things  are  possible. 
Has  He  interposed, — does  He  thus  interpose,  so  far 
as  human  experience  and  observation  instruct?  It  is 
evident ;  however  ;  that  the  legitimate  or  statutory 
penalty  involved  in  inseparable  consequence,  "the 
other  half  of  crime,"  ^   upon  the  individual  sinner 

I.     Punishment  is  not  some  thing  arbitrary;  it  is  the  other  half 
of  crime. — Hegel. 


SORROWS  OF  THE  DIVINE  FATHER  AND  MOTHER.      59 

himself,  personally  and  isolatedly,  for  his  sins, — not 
upon  others  or  things  external  to  him, — through  his 
enticement,  influence  conscious  or  unconscious,  and 
example, — can  be,  and  is  averted  or  stayed  upon  his 
Godly  sorrow  for  them.  This  is  demonstrated  by 
revelation  and  experience.  Consequences  upon  his 
body,  indeed  upon  his  soul,  to  the  extent  that  they 
have  crippled  its  spiritual  energy  and  usefulness,  are 
not,  cannot  be,  as  is  conceived,  stayed  on  repentance. 
His  soul  will  take  with  it  into  the  Celestial  State,  the 
scars  of  the  ravages  of  its  deflections  from  right  and 
duty;  to  that  extent.it  must  be  disabled  in  its  spirit- 
ual progression.  Much  less_  can  the  evil  consequences 
of  his  sins  upon  the  souls  and  bodies  of  others, — the 
Universe  at  large,  be  stayed,  except  as  the  Almighty 
doth  interpose.  But  the  sinner  upon  his  Godly  con- 
trition is  rescued  from  perdition,  though  so  as 
through  fire, — a  brand  snatched  from  it. 

Are  the  sufferings  of  God  in  Christ,  so  mysterious 
and  so  overwhelming  in  the  witness  of  some  of  their 
external,  their  material  effects,  that  they  are  not,  at 
least,  somewhat  apprehensible  and  intelligible,  in  the 
light  of  Parental  suffering,  and  of  baffled  Love, — that 
of  Father  and  Mother— God? — God  in  Christ?^ 

I.  It  was  God  Who  looked  forth  on  men  through  the  eyes  of 
Christ,  God  Who  spoke  to  men  through  the  voice  of  Christ,  God 
Who  beamed  on  men  from  the  face  of  Christ.  It  was  God, — His 
majesty  and  power,  His  purity  and  wisdom.  His  abhorrence  of 
evil  and  infinite  pity  for  evil-doers.  His  gentleness  and  patience, 
His  meekness  and  His  boundless  mercy,  which  were  unveiled 
through  the  whole  life,  and  in  the  whole  spirit  of  Christ.  The 
very  heart  of  God,  in  its  deepest  fountains,  was  laid  open,  and  was 
seen  to  gush  forth  in  the  tears  and  in  the  life-blood  of  Christ. 


60  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE.     - 

Is  there  room  for, — is  there  need  of  the  interposi- 
tion of  materialistic  theories, — of  blood  atonement,  of 
commercial  satisfaction,  of  rendition  to  Justice, — eye 
for  an  eye,  tooth  for  a  tooth,  of  governmental  vindi- 
cation, in  their  literal,  earthy  limitations,  their  tech- 
nical, legal  narrowness  and  complication,  for  satisfac- 
tory solution  of  such  Tragedy? 

It  was  through  these  means  to  impress  men,  that  God 
was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself. 
The  atonement,  r^  xazalhiyy,^  more  correctly,  the  recon- 
ciliation, is  in  it, — so  many  as  choose  to  be  reconciled, 
not  Him.  There  is  no  parallax  in  Him.  Jas.  i:17. 
Men  are  saved  through  His  sovereign  grace  and  pur- 
pose, whenever  the  pre-required  Godly  sorrow  is  dis* 
cerned  and  manifested.  The  Apostle  authoritatively 
declares: — God  Who  saved  us,  and  called  us  with  a 
holy  calling,  not  according  to  our  works,  but  accord- 
ing to  His  own  purpose  and  grace,  which  was  given 
U8  in  Christ  Jesus  ^before  times  eternal,  but  hath  now 
been  manifested  by  the  Epiphany  of  our  Savior, 
Christ  Jesus,  etc.     II  Tim  i :  9. 

He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  eternal  life;  but 
he  that  obeyeth  not  the  Son  shall  not  see  life,  but  the 
wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him.  John  iii :  36.  Indeed, 
since  He  was  the  manifestation  of  God  Himself,  and 
he  that  refuses  to  believe,  obey  Him,  refuses  to  be- 
lieve, obey  very  God  manifest;    and  the  blood  (the 

Christ  was  full  of  God,  up  to  the  highest  limit  of  the  capacity  of  a 
pure  human  soul.  Christ  was  full  of  God, — breathing  out,  stream- 
ing forth,  brimming  over  with  the  divine,  that  the  divine,  through 
His  mediation,  might  re-enter  men's  souls,  and  might  subdue, 
quicken  and  restore  them. — John  Tonng. 


THE  CHRIST  WITHIN — CLEANSES  AND  SAVES.         61 

life)  of  Jesus  Christ,  His  Son-:— God  in  Him,  cleans- 
eth  US  from  all  sin.  ^    I  John  i:  7. 

Indeed!  very  deed!  since  it  is  the  vividest  repre- 
sentative of  the  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God,  not  solely 
on  Calvary,  but  from  His  advent  to  and  exit  from 
earth,  the  conception  of  which  most  startles  and  im- 
presses men, — the  culmination  of  all  the  sorrows  and 
sufferings  of  His  tragic  life  compressed  and  repre- 
sented in  and  by  one  crimson  word;  since  the  shed- 
ding of  blood  had  ever  been  associated  with  forgive- 
ness of  sins  in  the  mind  of  the  Hebrew,  to  whom 
John's  Epistle,  with  that  to  the  Hebrews,  was  specifi- 
cally addressed,  and  for  whom,  in  fact,  most  of  the 

I.  "If  we  walk  in  the  light,  as  He  is  in  the  light,  then  have  we 
fellowship  one  with  another  " — God  with  us,  and  we  with  God — 
"and  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  His  Son  cleanseth" — is  ever 
cleansing — "us  from  all  sin."  .  .  .  There  is  one  mysterious 
and  mighty  institute  of  purification.  It  is  symbolized  in  the  Cross. 
Love,  the  love  of  God,  is  the  spiritual  antidote  to  human  sin,  but 
not  love  alone,  .  .  .  but  self-sacrificing  love,  incarnate,  cruci- 
fied love — love  which  has  wept  over  men,  which  has  groaned  and 
bled,  and  died  for  men — love,  streaming  out  in  the  life-blood  of 
the  Loving  One.  It  is  a  fact,  not  a  dogma,  the  fact  of  profoundest 
mental  experience,  which  lies  in  these  Inspired  words :  "  The 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  God's  Son,  is  cleansing  us  from  all  sin."  It 
ever  is  cleansing  us ; — a  present,  invincible  virtue  goes  forth  from 
it,  to  beget  in  us  a  wonderful  abhorrence  of  evil,  and  a  wonderful 
longing  for  purity,  and  to  renew  the  defiled  soul  to  humble,  loving 
obedience! — John  Toung. 

The  blood  of  Christ  is,  as  shed,  the  life  of  Christ  given  for  men, 
and,  as  offered,  the  life  of  Christ  now  given  for  men,  the  life 
which  is  the  spring  of  their  life.  John  xii:  24.  The  blood  always 
includes  the  thought  of  the  life  preserved  and  active  beyond 
death.  .  .  .  Participation  in  Christ's  blood  is  participation  in 
His  life.    John  vi :  53-56. — Goldtvin  Smith. 


62  THE  ciiiasT  in  life. 

New  Testament  literature  was  prepared;  since  it  was 
His  physical,  perhaps  psychical  life, — comprehensive, 
perhaps,  of  His  celestial  being  in  quality  as  in  dura- 
tion; since  He  was  God  Manifest  Who  only  can  for- 
give sins, — the  Pleroma  of  the  Godhead, — over  all, 
God  blessed  forever, — the  Beginning  and  the  End, — 
the  First  and  the  Last; — of  Him,  through  Him,  unto 
Him  are  all  things,  to  Whom  be  the  glory  forever! 
Yes,  and  the  Apostle  also  avers,  that  much  more, 
being  reconciled  to  God  through  the  death  of  His 
Son,  shall  we  be  saved  by  His  life.     Eom.  v :  10. 

In  Romans  viii :  24,  the  Apostle  declares  that  we 
are  saved  by  hope;  and  in  Eph.  ii:5,  8,  that  by  grace 
ye  have  been  saved;  ...  for  by  grace  have  ye 
been  saved  through  faith ;  Luke  vii :  50,  xviii :  42 ;  Acts 
xvi:31,  etc.;  and  the  Savior  Himself  avers,  in  Matth. 
X :  22,  that  he  who  continues  steadfast  in  his  fealty  to 
Him  through  tribulation  and  temptation  to  the  end 
shall  be  saved.  Men  are  declared  to  be  saved,  instru- 
mentally,  through  the  Gospel  and  its  preaching.  I 
Cor.  i:21,  xv:2.  By  constant  fidelity  in  the  ministry, 
the  same  Apostle  declares,  that  Timothy  shall  save 
both  himself  and  his  hearers.  I  Tim.  iv:16.  The 
word  implanted,  tinpurov^ — the  word  connate,  the  lit- 
eral word  introduced  and  stored  in  thought,  or  pri- 
marily engendered  in  the  soul  by  the  Spirit,  declares 
James,  is  able  to  save  souls.  James  1:21.  He  also 
declares,  that  he  who  shall  turn  about  or  back  (in- 
strumentally)  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way 
shall  save  a  soul  from  death,  etc.,  James  v:  20;  and 
Peter  (I  Pet.  iii:21,)  affirms,  that  Baptism  even,  the 
answer  of  a  good  conscience  toward  God — symbol  of 


SALVATION — THROUGH  VARIOUS  PROCESSES.         63 

its  subject's  death  and  burial  to  sin,  and  resurrection 
from  it  to  the  new  life  in  Christ,  saves  him. 

Salvation  is  wrought  by  various  instrumentalities, 
and  through  successive  spiritual  states — all  deriv- 
ative of  course  from  its  source  and  fountain-head — 
God  in  Christ.  According  to  His  mercy.  He  saved 
us  through  the  laver  of  regeneration,  and  ren- 
ovation of  the  Holy  Spirit;  Titus  iii:5.  Salvation, 
can  with  propriety  .be  said  to  be  conditioned  on  the 
passage  of  the  soul  through  any  single  one  of  these 
processes,  since  it  must  be  included  from  the  incip- 
iency  to  the  consummation  of  such  Divine  work  in 
a  soul. 

The  blood  is  the  life.  Deut.  xii :  23.  He  that  eat- 
eth  My  flesh  and  drinketh  My  blood  (he  that  feedeth 
upon  My  life)  hath  eternal  life;  and  I  will  raise  him 
up  at  the  last  day.     John  vi :  54 

What  is  the  import  in  personal  application  to  thee, 
what  is  specifically  signified  by  the  material,  the  fa- 
miliar symbols  employed,  is  for  thee,  believer,  and 
for  thee,  unbeliever, — poor  sinners  like  the  rest  of  us, 
to  undertake  to  apprehend.  Let  it  henceforth  ring 
and  reverberate  in  the  chambers  of  thy  soul. : — 

Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you :  Except  yQ  eat  the 
flesh  of  the  Son  of  Man,  and  drink  His  blood — i  e., 
feed  upon  His  life, — ye  have  not  life  in  yourselves. 
John  vi:53. 

Carefully  considering  His  own  declarations,  and 
the  specific  statements  of  the  Scriptures  as  to  His 
being  and  mission;  that  He  the  Son  -was  One  with 
the  Father — God, — not  merely  in  unity  of  thought, 
emotion  and  purpose,  but  One  hypostatically ;  that  He 


64  THE  CUllIST   IN   LIFE. 

was  the  manifesiaiion  of  God;  and  giving  only  to 
symbols  and  metaphors  employed  such  interpreta- 
tion, scope  and  application  as  were  designed  and  are 
allowed  in  the  use  of  material  analogies;  various 
affirmations  as  the  following  as  to  His  work  and  mis- 
sion should  not  be  difficult  in  apprehension: 

"Died;  suffered  for  our  sins;  the  just  for  the  un- 
just; gave  Himself  for  our  sins;  made  purification  of 
sins;  Who  His  own  Self  bear  our  sins  in  His  body 
upon  the  Tree;  was  manifested  to  take  away  our  sins; 
He  made  His  soul  an  offering  for  sin;  He  put  away 
sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself;  was  sacrificed  for  us; 
was  made  sin  (or  sin  offering — sacrificial  victim)  for 
us;  bear  the  sins  of  many;  one  sacrifice  for  sins  for- 
ever; bought  with  a  price;  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins,  and  also  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world;  died 
for  the  ungodly ;  Who  loved  us  and  washed  us  from 
our  sins  in  His  blood;  reconciled  us  to  God  by  His 
blood;  gave  His  life  a  ransom  for  many;  redeemed 
us  to  God  by  His  OAvn  blood;  His  blood  was  shed  for 
many  for  the  remission  of  sins;  His  blood  cleanseth 
from  all  sin;  we  are  justified  freely  by  God's  grace 
through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus;  God 
was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself, 
not  reckoning  unto  them  their  trespasses ;  Christ  pur- 
chased us  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  having  become 
a  curse  for  us;  tasted  death  for  every  man." 

In  self-denial,  suffering  and  physical  death,  in  the 
grief  and  anguish  wrung  out  of  His  suffering  heart 
on  account  of  His  wayward  children;  and  primarily 
for  the  clear  apprehension  of  the  Hebrews,  who  clung 
with  such  inveterate  tenacity    to  their  ritual  observ- 


VABIETY  OF  SYMBOLS.      THEIB  DESIGN.  65 

ances  for  purification  from  ritual  sin ,.  and  as  doubt- 
less many  of  them  did  from  real  sin ;  by  one  symbol, 
God  in  the  Christ  was  said  to  be  a  "sacrifice,"  and  an 
"offering;"  by  another  ^s  "propitiation;"  by  another, 
"reconciliation;"  by  another,  "ransom;"  by  another, 
"curse,"  or  legal  penalty;  by  another,  "blood  for 
cleansing;"  by  others,  as  "the  Way,  the  Truth  and 
the  Life;"  "the  Light  of  the  World;"  "the  Light  of 
Life;"  "the  Lamb  of  God  Which  taketh  away  the 
sin  of  the  world;"  "Lamb  without  spot  or  blemish;" 
"Priest  forever  after  the  order  of  Melchisedec;"  "our 
Passover;"  "an  Offering  and  Sacrifice  to  God  for  a 
fragrant  Odor;"  "the  Bridegroom;"  "theYine;"  "the 
Good  Shepherd;"  "the  Door  to  the  sheep-fold;"  "the 
Bread  and  Water  of  life;"  "the  Head  Stone;"  "the 
Corner  Stone,"  etc. ; — as  if  the  Spirit,  and  He  Him- 
self would  exhaust  all  possible  analogies  in  material 
existence,  and  in  human  experience  or  conception,  for 
illustration, — to  make  unmistakably  pellucid  to  every 
grade  of  intellect  and  intelligence,  among  Gentiles  as 
well  as  Jews,  to  sinners  in  all  conditions  and  vocations 
of  life,  in  every  age  to  end  of  time,  the  relation  in  which 
God  the  Father  manifested  through  His  Son  in  hu- 
manity ^tood  in  relation  to  His  sinning  children.  Every 
Godly  father,  whose  soul  has  been  touched  with  sor- 
row,— whose  heart  has  been  wrung  with  anguish  in 
the  consideration  of  the  persistent  waywardness  of 
his  child, — whose  death  thereby  will  be  hastened; — 
cherishing  the  hope,  that  that  self-denial,  suffering 
and  death  may  serve  to  awaken  that  child  to  a  reali- 
zation of  his  fearful  guilt,  and  of  consequent  impend- 
s 


66  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

ing  ruin,  has  had  a  touch,  at  least,  in  sympathetic  ap- 
prehension of  what  all  such  symbolic  terms, — as 
"sacrifice,"  "propitiation,"  "ransom,"  "penalty," 
"curse,"  "blood,"  "shed,"  and  "for  cleansing,"  with 
the  rest  of  them,  signify  in  such  tender  relations  and 
in  such  sufferings  correlated  with  them. 

Let  be  said  then,  by  summary,  though  it  be  repe- 
titional,  that  in  addition  to  the  natural  provision  for 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,  upon  Godly  sorrow  therefor, — 
that  comforting  assurance  in  consciousness  being  in- 
wrought in  the  mental  and  moral  constitution;  in 
addition  to  and  over  it  all,  that  there  is  a  certain 
efficacy  and  saving  power  (the  special  manner  and 
way  of  its  application  and  accomplishment  not  having 
been  fully,  if  partially  apprehended  as  yet)  in  the 
mission  of  Jesus, — His  life,  sufferings,  death,  resur- 
rection and  ascension, — cannot  be  denied;  since  His 
declarations  and  those  of  the  Apostles  are  so  abundant 
and  explicit  thereto.  But  if  it  will  ever  be  considered, 
that  He  was  God  Himself  in  manifestation, — given 
the  terrestrial  name  of  Jesus  or  Savior,  thus  endeav- 
oring to  reconcile  the  world  unto  Himself,  there  will 
not  be,  it  is  believed,  so  much  difficulty  in  the  appre- 
hension or  solution  of  the  mystery  of  their  correlation 
with  the  forgiveness  and  ensuing  salvation  of  the 
sinner.  The  Reconciler  thus,  Savior  is  God  in  the 
Christ  Who  thus  conditioned  ri^v  xaraXXayijv — the  rec- 
onciliation, as  He  ever  did  from  the  first.  The  sacri- 
fice and  suffering  of  His  paternal  heart,  though  not 
visibly  apparent  until  this  Theophany,  were  declared 
and  specified  in  His  Word.  Then,  upon  His  assump- 
tion of  a  human  form,  the  partial  exhibit  of  His  suf- 


THE  RECONCILING  SAVIOR, — GOD  IN  THE  CHRIST'.     67 

fering  Love  for  His  disobedient  children,  for  three 
years  of  the  one-third  century  of  this  Manifestation,  was 
so  terrestrially  palpable,  that  there  can  be  no  possi- 
bility of  its  failing  to  be  discerned  by  all  the  candid, 
— the  honest  minded.  He  was  God  in  the  Christ, — 
thus  proclaiming  in  Person  the  condition  of  Recon- 
ciliation. This  ministry  of  it  was,  and  is,  as  can  be 
conceived,  the  most  august  and  stupendous  display  of 
His  love  for  the  beings  He  had  made  in  His  own 
image.  Sacrifice  and  suffering  there  were,  of  course, 
— the  inevitable  concomitants  of  such  mission.  But . 
that  they  were  designed  for,  or  could  be  made  an 
atonement  for  sin,  in  the  sense  of  equivalence,  satis- 
faction, compensation,  expiation,  substitution,  gov- 
ernmental vindication,  cancellation;  an  equivalent 
quantity  of  merit  for  the  atonement — the  covering 
over  from  terrestrial,  celestial,  or  Deific  vision  of  the 
quantity  of  demerit  in  the  entire  human  family, — from 
the  first  Adam,  or  the  Second  .to  the  last  man;  the 
utter  extinction  of  it  as  fact  from  the  Universe, — is 
not  rationally  apprehensible,  upon  the  conviction  that 
what  has  mentally  or  morally  transpired  cannot  be 
recalled,  undone.  Matter  itself  is  unannihilable, — 
subject  only  to  transformation.  The  word,  the  act, 
the  desire  cannot  be  as  though  they  had  not  been, 
though  the  sinfulness  involved  may  be  repented  of, 
and  be  forgiven.  The  record  and  the  memory  thereof 
must  abide.  Such  atonement  for  the  guilt  of  another 
by  One  innocent,  if  it  can  be,  transcends  and  contra- 
venes equity,  as  humanly  conceived.  If  it  be  in  ad- 
dition by  One — Deific,  and  possible;  a  believer  like 
Paul,  could  only  exclaim  with  prof ounder  bewildey- 


68  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

meut  and  deeper  intensity,  than  did  that  great  Apostle: 
O  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of  the  wisdom  and  the 
knowledge  of  God!  How  unsearchable  are  His  judg- 
ments, and  His  ways  past  tracing  out!  Rom.  xi:33. 
But  is  it  not  to  be  supposed,  that  the  Divine  Father 
would  make  His  way  of  salvation  plain,  so  as  to  com- 
mend itself  to  the  apprehension  and  to  the  apprecia- 
tion of  His  children  in  all  ages  ?  It  is  believed  He 
has  so  done. 

Men  in  gross  moral  darkness,  without  the  light  of 
immediate  revelation  oral  or  written,  conceiving  their 
Deity  to  be  a  "magnified"  man — like  themselves 
anthropopathically,  deemed  an  external  Mediator, 
terrestrial  or  celestial,  essential  to  secure  favor  from 
Him,  or  to  placate  Him  Here  or  Hereafter.  Men 
also  under  the  light  of  the  revelation  through  Moses, 
and,  under  the  ritualistic  regimen  instituted  by  him, 
conscious  of  their  real  or  ceremonial  transgression, 
and  of  their  utter  inability  in  themselves  to  keep 
commandments  to  perfection,  and  to  satisfy  their 
requisitions  when  violated,  regarded  such  intercession 
mediatorial  with  their  Jehovah,  necessary  for  the 
same  purposes. 

It  is  sufficient  to  refer  to  the  plague  alleged  to  be 
stayed  by  the  prayer  of  Moses; — the  intercession  of 
Abraham  for  Sodom,  and  for  Abimelech;  of  Job  for 
his  friends;  the  illustrations  in  the  lives  of  David, 
Hezekiah,  Nehemiah  and  Daniel.  But  these  indicate 
their  very  limited,  contracted  apprehension  of  the 
nature  and  attributes  of  Jehovah.  They  evidently 
supposed  He  was  a  being  like  themselves,  more  or 
less  over-swayed  by  passion,  magnified  of  course  in- 


THE  MERCIFUL  AND  THE  INTERCESSORY  IN  GOD.     69 

definitely.  Ps.  1:21.  They  had  not  come  into  the 
fuller  apprehension  of  the  latter  days  through  Chris- 
tianity, and  through  human  reason  developed  and 
sanctified  thereby.  The  God  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury of  the  Christian  era  with  Christianized  persons, 
is  not  the  capricious,  changeable  Jahyeh  of  the  anti- 
diluvian  or  post-diluvian  times — swayed  on  provoca- 
tives by  gusts  of  passion,  as  are  sometimes  large 
minded  and  good  men,  and  as  are  very  many  ordinary 
men.  He  is  superlatively  Good  as  He  is  Almighty, 
Supreme,  Absolute,  and  Eternal.  His  being  and  na- 
ture are  Love.  He  is  holy,  equable,  unchangeable, 
constant,  stable.  "I  am  the  Lord.  I  change  not." 
Malachi.  iii:  6.  Numbers  xxiii:  19.  He  is  omnis- 
cent,  and  needs  not  to  be  apprised  of  the  circumstan- 
ces and  necessities  of  His  creatures.  He  is  suscepti- 
ble in  Himself,  and  exclusively  on  His  sole  motion. 
The  merciful,  the  intercessory  qualities  are  constit- 
uent in  His  being,  therefore  complete.  They  were 
specially  manifested  in  His  representative  Christ. 
He  ever  responds  promptly,  fully,  to  the  requisition 
of  the  sinner, — his  cry  for  help  upon  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Godly  contrition  required.  He  does  not 
thus  graciously  and  fully  respond  without  compliance 
with  such  conditions ;  not  because  He  is  not  apprised 
of  the  sinner's  forlorn  situation,  or  because  He  is  not 
willing  to  extend  the  priceless  boon  to  him,  without 
hesitation  and  without  pleading ;  but  because  He  knows, 
that  suitable  relief  to  a  want  not  realized,  compliant 
response  to  cry  not  extorted  out  of  realization  of  lost 
and  helpless  state,  would  not  be  appreciated,  and  might 
serve  to  brace  the  beleagured  soul  in  self-reliance,  to 


70  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

foster  confidence  in  its  own  self-sufficiency  and  inde- 
pendence,— to  intensify  neglect,  perhaps,  defiance, 
of  his  Maker.  "  Is  not  this  the  great  Babylon  I  have 
built  by  the  might  of  my  power,  and  for  the  honor  of 
my  majesty?"  What  a  transformation  was  there  of 
his  thought  and  its  expression,  when  he  came  to  him- 
self, fi'om  the  depths  of  his  abasement,  his  expulsion, 
his  abandonment  by  God!  He  doeth  according  to 
His  will  in  the  army  of  Heaven,  and  among  the  in- 
habitants of  earth;  and  none  can  stay  His  hand,  or 
say  unto  Him,  what  doest  Thou?  .  .  .  All  His 
works  are  truth,  and  His  ways  judgment,  and  those 
that  walk  in  pride.  He  is  able  to  abase.     Dan.  iv. 

But,  to  such  exposition  of  His  goodness,  there  ever 
should  be  super-added,  that  of  His  severity.  Kom. 
xi :  22.  The  vindicatory  and  the  condemnatory  are  in 
inseparable  junction  with  the  merciful  and  the  inter- 
cessory. They  are  the  obverse  and  the  reverse  sides 
of  His  nature. 

Jesus — the  Son  of  God — the  Son  of  Man  ascended 
to  His  Father  — ^being  One  with  Him  as  He  averred. 
Death,  resurrection,  and  ascension  involved  the 
sloughing  of  the  fleshly  integuments,  the  aban- 
donment of  terrestrial  habiliments  and  conditions 
assumed.  He  manifested  Himself  for  a  short  period 
after  His  ascension  to  His  disciples,  visibly,  tangibly, 
with  the  same  wounds  in  hands,  feet  and  side,  or  their 
celestial  counterpart;  He  ate  and  drank  for  the  con- 
firmation of  their  faith  — that  He  still  lived  to  do  all 
He  had  pledged; — whether  in  an  exclusively  celestial- 
ized  or  terrestrial  body,  cannot  be  determined  from 
the  records.     Perhaps  both  the  terrestrial  and  celes- 


NO  DUPLEX  OR  TRIPLEX  GOD  ON  THE  THRONE.       71 

tial  were  interchangeably  assumed,  as  occasion  de- 
manded. 

So  far  as  is  revealed  and  can  be  apprehended, 
there  can  be  no  duple  or  triple  headed  Divinity  on 
the  Throne  of  the  Universe.  In  accommodation  to 
the  spiritual  limitations  of  disciples,  and  for  the  sat- 
isfaction of  their  aspirations.  He  declared,  by  a  figure, 
that  He  went  to  prepare  mansions  for  them,  which 
being  God  He  does.  John  xii:26,  xiv:  3,  xvii:24  It 
is  also  declared  by  a  figure,  that  He  was,  is,  and  shall 
be  at  the  right  hand  of  Power,  or  God.  Dan.  vii:13, 
Matth.  xix :  28,  xxiv :  30,  xxv :  31,  xxvi :  64,  Mark  xii :  36, 
xiii:26,  xiv: 62,  xvi:19,  Luke  xx: 42,  xxi:27,  xxii:69. 
Acts  ii:  33,  vii:55,  56,  Kom,  viii:34,  Eph.  i:20.  Col. 
iii :  1,  Heb.  i :  3,  viii :  1,  x :  12,  xii :  2,  I  Pet.  iii :  22.  The 
Apostle,  Eom.  viii: 34,  Heb.  vii:25,  ix:24,  as  in  I  John 
ii:l,  also,  to  impress  that  class  of  believers  specifi- 
cally addressed,  affirmed  that  He  Jesus,  after  the 
similitude  of  their  ritual  High  Priest,  ever  liveth  to 
make  intercession  for  tried  and  suffering  disciples, 
which  Love  in  God  r— comprising  the  Intercessory 
qualities  moving  upon  His  Justice  ^embodying  the 
Vindicatory,  ever  does.  It  is  also  declared,  and  un- 
conditionally in  Rev.  i:18,  I  am  the  First  and  the 
Last,  and  the  Living  One.  ...  I  am  alive  for- 
evermore;  and  the  Apostle  in  Heb.  xiii:8,  also 
averred  that  Jesus  the  Christ,  is  the  same  yesterday, 
and  to-day,  and  forever.  This  would  be  true,  what- 
ever were  the  conditions  of  His  being  in  the  Heavens, 
— ^whether  God  in  the  distinctive,  celestialized  Christ, 
through  Whom  alone  God  may  be  able  to  be  seen  in 
Glory, — since  He  is  Spirit  pure  and  illimitable;  or, 


72  THE   CliiaST   IN   LIFE. 

whether  Christ  iu  God — subsistent  in  and  consnb- 
stantial  with  Him.  God  is  the  Christ  and  the  Christ 
is  God.  Conception  of  Fatherhood  and  Sonhood, — 
taken  in  literality  and  not  in  figure, — still  existing  in 
the  Heavens, — two  Personalities  distinct,  co-ordinate 
or  inco-ordinate,  involves  belief  in  a  Duality  on  the 
Throne.  Both  must  be  jointly  co-ordinate,  or  one 
must  be  primitive  and  the  other  derivative.  The  Unity 
of  the  Godhead  is  nullified  by  such  hypothesis;  and 
the  belief  that  God  was  in  the  Christ, — very  God  in 
such  manifestation  as  is  possible  with  such  limita- 
tions through  the  medium  of  a  human  form,  would 
be  confounded  or  destroyed.  Prayer,  for  the  want 
of  singleness  and  directness  in  address,  becomes  a 
shuttle-cock  of  the  heart  driven  by  the  battle-door  of 
the  mind — interchangeably  from  one  Being  to  the 
Other,  often  confounded  in  the  supplication, — is  con- 
fused and  unsatisfactory  to  the  aspiring  soul.  Jesus, 
by  precept  and  example  in  His  universal,  and  in  His 
intercessory  prayer,  taught  us  to  address  God,  Our 
Father,  wdien  we  pray. 

He  was  the  son  of  Man  in  His  earthly  relations, — 
Son  of  God  in  the  Divine.  The  Father  and  the  Son 
were  and  are  hyx)ostatically  One.  Eepresentation  that 
the  ascended  Jesus  is  an  Intercessor  with  God  in 
Heaven,  for  succor  and  forgiveness  to  His  disciples 
left  behind  Him,  and  to  all  who  should  believe  in 
Him  through  their  word,  is  based,  it  is  believed, 
on  the  fact,  that  the  same  merciful  characteristics  and 
intercessory  qualities  exist  in  God  in  Heaven,  as  they 
did  in  His  manifestation  in  the  Christ  on  the  earth. 

If  Jesus  in  Heaven  is  a  Personality  distinct  from 


GOD  SEEN  THROUGH  THE  CELESTIALIZED  CHRIST.     73 

God  Himself, — really  in  Man  Form,  "  at  His  riglit 
hand,"  so  that  He  can  be  conceived  of,  and  appealed  to, 
as  the  Intercessor  with,  and  distinctively  from  God 
on  behalf  of  His  saved  ones,  it  must  be  in  His  glori- 
fied humanity,  though  with  the  Theophany  still,  as 
was  on  the  earth.  He  then  must  appear  there  the 
highest  and  the  grandest  of  all  the  saints  in  light, 
such  as  Moses,  Samuel,  Daniel,  John  Baptist,  Paul, — 
the  glorified  and  alone  perfect  Man.  Would  He,  or 
would  He  not,  thus  be  presented  by  stress  of  human 
logic,  to  be  less  than  God,  though  more  than  man  and 
angels?  But  since  God  is  a  Spirit  pure  and  illimit- 
able, and  cannot  be  seen  by  terrestrial  or  celestial- 
ized  eyes,*  even  in  the  Celestial  State;  probably  He 
will  only  be  manifested  to  the  saints  in  light,  as 
to  Angels, — through  the  celestialized  Person  of  Jesus 
the  Christ,  as  He  was  upon  the  earth,  through  Him 
in  the  Flesh.  He  will  be  God  in  Him  There,  as  He 
was  Here. 

All  prayer  then,  thus  and  solely  directed,  would  be 
relieved  of  the  confusion  and  indirectness  with  which 

I.  Thou  canst  not  see  My  face;  for  there  shall  no  man  see  Me, 
and  live. — £x.  xxxiii:  20. 

God  is  Spirit. — yoJni  iv:  24 

No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time ;  the  only  begotten  Son,  He 
being  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  hath  made  Him  known. — John 
i:  18;  I  John  iv:  12. 

Whom  no  man  hath  seen,  nor  can  see. — /  Tim.  i>i:  16. 

Ye  have  neither  heard  His  (Father's)  voice  at  any  time,  nor 
seen  His  form. — Joh7i  v:j^. 

If  ye  had  known  Me,  ye  would  have  known  My  Father  also : 
from  henceforth  ye  know  Him,  and  have  seen  Him. — John  xiv."^. 


74  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

all  human  petition  is  attended  without  bucIi  concep- 
tion. Addresses  to  Him  then,  would  be  directly  to 
the  Intercessory — Mediate — God  in  Christ,  or  Christ 
in  God, — not  directly  to  illimitable  Spirit, — the  Al- 
mighty, the  Eternal,  the  Infinite,  the  Absolute. 
Probably  then  any  dii'ect,  specific  glimpse  of  God, 
by  the  saints  in  light  will  be  and  only  .through  and 
in  the  celestialized  form  of  Jesus,  though  the  Uni- 
verse, with  its  myriads  of  terrestrials  and  celestials,  its 
celestial  and  terrestrial  things,  personal  experiences 
and  historical  providences,  will  still  declare  His  being, 
power,  character  and  glory. 

If  Jesus  having  been  the  highest  possible  mani- 
festation of  God  in  a  human  form, — Man,  with  all  the 
human  qualities  in  perfectness  and  purity,  as  well  as 
"the  Pleroma  of  the  Godhead  bodily," — that  is,  to 
the  extent  of  possible  manifestation  of  such  "Pleroma" 
of  Deific  qualities  and  perfections  in  "bodily"  human 
form, — has  not  passed  into,  and  does  not  abide  in  the 
Heavens,  individually,  personally,  distinctively  from 
the  Godhead, — the  necessity  and  the  occasion  for 
such  Deific  manifestation  on  the  earth  until  the  Sec- 
ond Advent,  save  for  a  short  period  after  the  Ascension, 

He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father:  how  sayest  thou, 
shew  us  the  Father?  Belie  vest  thou  not  that  I  am  in  the  Father, 
and  the  Father  in  Me?  the  words  that  I  say  unto  you  I  speak  not 
from  Myself;  but  the  Father  abiding  in  Me  doeth  His  works. 
Believe  Me  that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  Me :  or  else 
believe  Me  for  the  very  works'  sake. — John  xiv:g-ii. 

It  will  be  noticed,  that,  in  all  those  passages  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, in  M-hich  it  is  declared  God  or  His  glory  was  seen,  it  was 
through  His  angels  or  messengers,  or  through  some  symbolical 
representation. 


THE  INTERCESSORY  AND  CONDEMNATORY  IN  GOD.     75 

and  some  celestial  glimpses  since,  having  ceased  with 
the  cry:  "7/  is  finished!'^  then,  He  cannot  be  singled 
out  there  aside  fi'om  God  as  the  Intercessor  with 
Him  on  behalf  of  His  children;  the  human  qualities  . 
intellectual,  moral,  spiritual,  in  their  perfection  and 
purity  ,being  constituent  elements  of  God's  nature 
— have  been  ever  in  Him;  all  prayer  therefore  must 
be  directed  immediately  to  God  the  Father,  being 
Intercessor  and  the  Interceded  With,  Father  and 
Son,  God  and  Savior,  Mercy  and  Justice,  the  Inter- 
cessory qualities  and  the  Condemnatory  in  equipoise, 
— the  Obverse  and  the  Eeverse  sides  of  His  divine  na- 
ture. Mercy  and  Truth  have  met  together.  Right- 
eousness and  Judgment  have  kissed  each  other.  Ps. 
Ixxxv:  10.  Righteousness  and  Judgment  are  the  hab- 
itation of  His  throne.  Mercy  and  Truth  shall  go  be- 
fore His  face.     Ps.  lxxxix:14,  xcvii:2. 

Did,  then,  the  Theophany  through  Jesus  the  Christ, 
the  terrestrial  or  the  time  distinction  between  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  terminate  at  the  Ascension? 

If  the  declaration  is  not  to  be  interpreted  figura- 
tively and  as  a .  symbol,  but  as  heralding  a  coming 
eveiji,  in  junction  with  its  object  the  most  portentous; 
then  such  Theophany  will  be  resumed, — when  He 
will  he  seen,  as  is  averred,  coming  on  the  clouds  of 
Heaven  with  great  power  and  glory,  and  with  attend- 
ant angels.  Each, — every  eye  shall  see  Him,  it  is 
declared,  even  those  who  pierced  Him!  Rev.  i:7;  and 
in  the  Celestial  State, — also  declared:  His  servants 
shall  see  His  face.  Rev.  xxii:4,  Matth.  xxiv:30,  xxvi: 
64,  Mark  xiii:26,  xiv:62,  I  Thess.  iv:17. 

These  are  mysteries,  into  which  men,  as  well  as 


76  THE   CHRiyT   IN    LIFE. 

Angels,  desire  to  look.  Do  not  Scriptures,  God-in- 
spired, encourage  and  authorize  the  Human  to  cherish 
and  to  indulge  in  such  desii'e? 

To  such  conclusions  ,does  the  logic  of  thought  con- 
duct. But  logic  must  give  place  to  the  weakness, 
necessities,  and  aspirations  of  the  human  soul — in 
earthly  limitations,  from  carnal  impulsion;  to  Pro- 
phetic symbols,  and  Apostolic  declarations. 

If  this  conception  of  Jesus  the  Christ  in  Heaven — 
as  the  Mediator,  Intercessor,  Manifestation  of  Deific 
Personality,  or  a  Personality  distinct  from  God's,  at 
least  in  presentation, — the  Supreme  Object  of  poor 
human  trust  and  belief, — the  Cynosure  of  "  every  eye," 
be  stricken  out  of  the  Beatific*  Vision  disclosed  to  the 
dying  Stephen  and  the  ecstasied  John;  then  most 
precious  aspirations  and  hopes  through  the  Christian 
ages,  cries  unutterable  and  too  deep  for  tears, — at- 
tempted to  be  compressed  in  penitential  psalms  and 
adoring  hymns,  in  appealing  invocations  and  wailing 
litanies, — cumulating  in  the  climax  of  supplication  to 
Him  of  the  Triune, — struggling  now.  as  ever  for  ex- 
pression, will  be  repressed,  no  longer  cherishable, 
and  .for  prayer.  Oh!  we  must  be  permitted  in  our  hu- 
man weakness,  if  weakness  it  be,  still  to  cry,  and  to 
sing  with  the  blood-washed  millions  of  the  past,  the 
present  and  the  future: — 

I.         Attended  with  ten  thousand  thousand  saints, 
He  onward  came ;  far  off  His  coming  shone. 

— Paradise  Lost.     Book  VI. 

I  did  think,  I  did  see  all  Heaven  before  me,  and  the  Great  God 
Himself. — Handel^  on  the  composition  of  his  '■'■Hallelujah  Chorus^'* 


HE  IS  OVER  ALL,  GOD-BLESSED  FOREVER !  77 

Jesus !  Lover  of  my  soul, 

Let  me  to  Thy  bosom  fly, 
While  the  billows  near  me  roll, 

While  the  tempest  still  is  nigh! 
Hide  me,  O  my  Savior !  hide, 

Till  the  storm  of  life  is  past ; 
Safe  into  the  haven  guide ; 

O  receive  my  soul  at  last! 

Other  refuge  have  I  none ; 

Hangs  my  helpless  soul  on  Thee ! 
Leave,  ah !  leave  me  not  alone. 

Still  support  and  comfort  me! 
All  my  trust  on  Thee  is  stayed ; 

All  my  help  from  Thee  I  bring ; 
Cover  my  defenceless  head, 

With  the  shadow  of  Thy  wing ! 

—  Wesley. 

If  this  be  only  a  symbol  of  the  unspeakable,  inde- 
scribable reality;  let  be;  we  will  still  cling  to  it,  till 
we  wake  with  His  likeness ;  for  we  know  if  Scripture 
be  of  God  that,  when  He  celestialized  shall  be  ap- 
parent again,  we  shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see 
Him  even  as  He  is — Over  All,  God-blessed  Forever! 
Ps.  xvii:  15,  I  John  iii:2,  Kom.  ix:5. 


Mere  acts  of  the  understanding  are  neither  right  nor  wrong.  . 
.  .  In  the  Scriptures,  .  .  .  faith  and  unbelief  are  mental 
acts,  ...  or  joint  products  of  the  understanding  and  heart; 
and  on  this  account  alone  thej  are  objects  of  approbation  or  re- 
proof. .  .  .  Opinions  cannot  be  laid  down  as  unerring  and 
immutable  signs  of  virtue  and  vice.  The  very  same  opinion  may 
be  virtuous  in  one  man,  and  vicious  in  another,  supposing  it,  as  is 
very  possible,  to  have  originated  in  different  states  of  mind. 

The  time  is  come  when  religious  bodies  will  be  estimated  by 
the  good  they  do^  when  creeds  are  to  be  less  and  less  the  test  of  the 
Christian,  and  when  they,  who  labor  most  effectually  for  their  fel- 
low beings,  will  be  acknowledged  to  give  the  best  proof  of  having 
found  the  truth. 

Our  religion  is  at  this  moment  adopted,  and  passionately  de- 
fended by  vast  multitudes  on  the  ground  of  the  very  same  pride, 
worldliness,  love  of  popularity,  and  blind  devotion  to  hereditary 
prejudices,  which  led  the  Jews  and  heathen  to  reject  it  in  the 
primitive  age ;  and  the  faith  of  the  first  is  as  wanting  in  virtue,  as 
was  the  infidelity  of  the  last. — Dr.  Channing. 

Perhaps  in  no  previous  age,  has  there  been  witnessed  such  an 
exhibition  of  decorous  plausibilities  and  apparent  sincerity  in  re- 
ligious profession,  combined  with  melancholy  deficiencies  of  truth 
and  integrity  in  trade,  commerce,  and  all  dealings  between  man 
and  man,  as  at  the  present  time. — Triumph  of  Good  over  Evil. 

Therefore  by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them.  Not  every  one 
that  saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  My  Father  Who  is  in 
Heaven. — Matth.  vii:  20. 

For  they  say,  and  do  not. — Matth.  xxiit:  iii. 


(W? 


CHAPTEE  11. 


THE  CBEED   IN  THE   DEED. 

Except  a  man  be  born  from  above,  he  cannot  see  the  Kingdom 
of  God. — John  ni:j. 

He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  eternal  life ;  and  he  who  dis- 
obeys the  Son  shall  not  see  life,  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on 
him. — Johti  iii.'jd. 

Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with 
all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  .  .  .  This  do,  and  thou  shalt  live. — 
Luke  X :  ^7,  2S. 

If  ye  love  them  that  love  you,  what  merit  can  you  claim  ?  for 
even  sinners  love  those  that  love  them.  And  if  ye  do  good  to 
them  that  do  good  to  you,  what  merit  can  you  claim  ?  for  even 
sinners  do  the  same.  And  if  ye  lend  to  them  of  whom  ye  hope 
to  receive,  what  merit  can  you  claim.?  even  sinners  lend  to  sinners, 
to  receive  again  as  much. — Luke  vi:  J2-J4. 

Thou  therefore  that  teachest  another,  teachest  thou  not  thy- 
self.'* thou  that  preachest  a  man  should  not  steal,  dost  thou  steal.'' 
etc. — Romans  ii:  21. 

Verily  I  say  unto  you,  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  unto  one  of 
these  least  .ye  did  it  not  unto  Me. — Matth.  xxv-4^. 

If  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  but  have  not 
love,  I  am  become  sounding  brass,  or  a  clanging  cymbal;  and  if  I 
have  prophetic  gift,  and  know  all  mysteries  and  all  knowledge; 
find  if  I  have  all  faith,  so  as  to  remove  movm tains,  but  have  not  love, 
I  am  nothing      And  if  I  distribute  all  I  have  to  feed  the  poor,  and 

(70) 


80  THE   CHKIST   IN    LIFE. 

if    I    give  my  body  lo  be  burned,  but  have  not  love,  it  profiteth 
me  nothing. — /  Cor.  xtit:  i-j. 

Let  your  light  shine  before  men  that  they  may  see  your  good 
works,  and  glorify  your  Father  Who  is  in  Heaven. — Mattli  v:  i6. 

Walk  as  children  of  light.— £///.  v:8. 

So  we  also  might  walk  in  a  new  life. — Rom.  vi :  4. 

In  purity,  in  knowledge,  in  long-suffering,  in  kindness,  etc 
//  Cor  vi:  6 

The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  kintl- 
ness,  goodness,  faithfulness,  lenity,  self-mastery,  etc. — Gal.  v:22-j. 

Whatever  things  are  true, 

Whatever  things  are  revered, 

Whatever  things  are  just, 

Whatever  things  are  pure, 

Whatever  things  are  lovely, 

Whatever  things  are  commendable, 

Whatever  virtue,  whatever  praiseworthy, — 

Prize  these  things.  — Phil,  iv:  8- 

Eepentance,  therefore, — Godly  contrition  for  sin, — 
an  act  of  the  soul  apprehended  by  the  weakest, 
whereupon  forgiveness  can  be  secured,  and  the  Heav- 
enly inheritance  thereafter  attained,  was  the  prime 
burden  of  the  Savior's  ministry.  "R'>^ent!"  cried 
He,  as  if  the  message  had  been  thundered  upon  His 
hearers  for  the  first  time,  "for  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  at  hand."  Indeed,  aside  from  the  moni- 
tions of  conscience  in  every  one,  it  was  thus  for  the 
first  time,  in  public  declaration  to  the  mass  of  the 
common  people,  and  the  mongrel  rabble  ,then  in 
Judea  and  Galilee.  Intelligent  Hebrews,  as  was 
foretold,  when  they  heard  did  not  understand;  and, 
when  they  saw  did  not  perceive.  The  two  first 
classes,  in  their  ignorance  and  destitution,  did  not 
read  .or  hear  read  the  Hebrew  or  the  Aramean  Scrip- 


REPENTANCE  THE  CONDITION  OF  FOKGIVENESS.      81 

tures,  or  the  Septuagint  Version  at  all.  But  as  the 
Apostle  said:  the  times  of  ignorance,  therefore  God 
overlooked;  but  no^  as  then  commanding  men  that 
they  should  all,  everywhere,  repent.  Acts  xvii:30. 
He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  eonian  life, — true 
life  in  quality  as  in  eternal  duration,  and  he  that 
believeth  not  the  Son  shall  not  see  life,  but  the  wrath 
of  God  abideth  on  him.  John  iii :  36.  Thus  He  dis- 
coursed to  the  end.  As  he  was  about  to  ascend,  He 
impressively  charged  His  disciples:  Go  ye  into  all 
the  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  whole  crea- 
tion. He  that  believes  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved; 
but  he  that  does  not  believe  shall  be  condemned. 
Mark  xvi:16.  Salvation  on  the  part  of  God  is  easy, 
since  as  a  Father  He  yearns  that  all  repenting 
should  return  unto  Him,  be  forgiven  and  be  saved. 
Salvation  on  the  part  of  the  sinner  is  difficult,  because 
he  is  indisposed  to  heed  the  gracious  entreaty. 

What  belief  is  in  the  Christ's  acceptation  needs 
no  exposition  in  our  time.  It  is  a  persuasion,  that 
what  He  affirmed  was  true.  It  is  not  mere  intellectual 
assent  to  Truth.  Thou  belie  vest  God  is  One;  thou 
doest  well.  Demons  also  believe  and  shudder.  James 
ii:19.  With  the  heart  man  believeth  unto  righteous- 
ness; and  with  the  mouth  confession  is  made  unto 
salvation.  Komans  x:10.  With  it  is  involved  and 
conjoined  such  sorrow  for  sin,  such  profound  con- 
sciousness of  helplessness  as  a  sinner,  such  recogni- 
tion of  God  in  the  Christ,  such  inaugurated  love  of 
God  with  the  entire  being,  and  of  one's  neighbor  as 
one's  self, — though  there  is  a  still  higher  degree  ot 

6 


82  THE   CHllIST   IN    LIFE. 

it  which  induces  Bacrifice  of  one's  temporal  interests, 
— even  of  life  itself  for  the  weal  of  others, — as  was 
that  of  Jesus,  if  one  is  able  to  attain  unto  such 
altruism^  (John  xv:13),  that  a  revolution  of  desires, 
motives,  aims  and  ends  of  life  ensues.  The  soul  is 
thus  born  from  above, — is  renewed,  transformed, — 
issues  from  darkness  into  light.  The  profession 
thereafter  will  be  translated  into  life.  The  life  will 
reveal  the  creed. 

I.  Auguste  Comte  criticised  the  Golden  Rule  as  having  too 
much  regard  for  self.  "  Self,"  he  says,  is  the  soul  of  sin ;  self-hood 
is  evil.  One  must  forget  himself.  The  right  rule  is— not  to  do  as 
you  -Nvould  have  others  do  unto  you,  but  to  do  to  others  what  ab- 
solute good-will  requires:  to  live  for  others. — O.  B.  Frothingham. 

A  high  morality  demands,  not  that  we  should  treat  them  as  we 
wish  them  to  treat  us,  but  that  we  should  be  able  to  rise  above 
our  wishes  for  ourselves,  or  even  theirs  for  themselves,  and  recog- 
nize their  right  to  the  best  treatment  of  their  situation  and  need, 
whether  we  should  wish  for  such  specific  treatment  or  not.  If  I 
am  selfish  and  want  my  greed  consulted,  shall  I  therefore  gratify 
another's  to  his  injury  .'* — Oriental  Religions. — Johnson. 

Unless  we  desire  happiness  for  ourselves,  we  have  no  standard 
of  measurement  by  which  to  guide  our  conduct  towards  others, 
nothing  to  give  us  a  clue,  as  to  what  others  will  desire.  And  more 
than  this,*as  Spencer  has  shown  in  his  "  Data  of  Ethics,"  those 
who  through  neglect  of  due  self-regard  have  failed  to  maintain 
bodily  well-being,  end  by  becoming  a  burden,  instead  of  a  help  to 
others.     .     .     . 

The  constant  exclusion  of  our  happiness  from  the  idea  of  what 
is  good  or  right  to  be  done,  is  a  dangerous  fallacy,  because  under 
the  guise  of  transcendent  virtue  it  undermines  natural  virtue, 
which  requires  of  us  only  that  we  should  do  unto  others  as  we 
,vould  be  done  by, — that  we  should  love  our  neighbor  as  ourselves, 
seeking  his  good  as  well  as, — not  regardless  of  .our  own. — P.  F. 
f^itzgerald. — Phil,  of  Self -Consciousness, 


WHAT  SHALL  MEN  DO  TO  INHEEIT  ETERNAL  LIFE.  83 

When  men  inquire,  what  they  shall  do  to  inherit 
eternal  life,  their  sincerity  in  asking,  their  willingness 
to  do  what  may  be  required,  from  a  right  motive,  are 
to  be  tested:  they  are  to  test  themselves.  When  a 
Master  in  Israel  came  by  night,  desiring,  perhaps 
moved  thereto  by  gracious  influence,  to  get  insight 
into  the  doctrines  of  this  "teacher  come  from  God;" 
the  Savior  confronted  him  with  utterance  imperative 
and  curt:  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  except  a 
man  be  born  from  above,  he  cannot  see  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  John  iii:3.  The  creed  of  ancestry  had 
doubtless,  descended  to  Nicodemus  as  an  heir-loom. 
Perhaps  ,unconsciously  he  had  come  to  trust  much 
in  the  conserving  power  of  heredity.  Perhaps  he 
had  rested  his  hopes  of  ultimate  salvation  on  the 
ground  of  external  and  literal  obedience,  motives  un- 
considered, not  by  trust  in  Him,  Who,  Moses  and 
the  Prophets  predicted,  would  come,  and  as  was  evi- 
denced to  this  devout  member  of  the  Sanhedrim  had 
come,  and  was  before  him  then  and  there  .face  to 
face.  Interior,  radical  revolution  of  motives,  desires 
and  purposes,  from  the  idolatry  of  self  ^and  of  inter- 
ests that  exclusively  center  in  self,  was  not  recognized 
as  essential  to  the  obtainment  of  the  Heavenly  inher- 
itance. There  are  Nicodemuses  in  our  time,  D.  D.'s 
and  Ph.  D.'s,  on  whom  perhaps  consecrating  hands 
have  been  laid, — thus  buttressed  in  their  hopes,  who 
need  to  be  thus  unceremoniously  and  curtly  addressed. 
It  may  be  ,they  are  passing  life  under  the  shadows 
of  Theological  or  Missionary  Corporations,  as  Pro- 
fessors or  Secretaries,  and  perhaps  well-to-do  in  the 
Earthlies  have  thought  to  secure  a  lien  ex  officio 


84  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

upon  the  Heavenlies;  or,  in  centers  of  social,  intel- 
lectual and  religious  culture,  are  referring  all  ques- 
tions in  politics,  ethics,  and  religion,  to  their  idola- 
trized  self -reason, — unillumined  by  the  Spirit  and  the 
literal  "Word,  and  uncollated  with  other  individual 
reasons, — as  the  supreme  and  last  arbiter  for  decision. 
True,  the  Infinite  has  not  required  the  repression  of 
a  finite  individual  reason  in  its  attempt  to  apprehend 
the  unknown,  for  the  injunction  is:  Scrutinize!  Do 
not  servilely,  facilely  accept  the  judgments  or  the 
opinions  of  others.  Thoroughly  test  them  for  thy- 
self. Hail  light  on  truth  and  duty,  from  whatever 
source,  but  mistake  not  darkness  for  light.  No  soul 
however  enlightened  can  safely  regard  its  solitary 
dida  as  infallible. 

The  external  conduct  of  these  moral  persons, — 
"ethical  culturists,"  as  tested  by  the  prohibitions  of 
the  Decalogue,  may  be  spotless  and  polished  as  Parian 
marble  and  as  cold.  Long  since  they  abandoned 
confidence  in  those  spiritual  revolutions,  experiences 
and  states,  denominated  "repentance  unto  life,"  "re- 
generation," "  conversion,"  "new  birth,"  "new  man," 
"Christ  dwelling  in  the  heart,"  "Christ  formed 
within."  Jesus,  they  do  not  question,  was  a  "teacher 
sent  from  God,"  a  prophet  extraordinary,  a  divine 
exemplar,  a  model  man,  ranking  with  Sakya  Muni, 
Zoroaster,  Confucius,  and  Francis  of  Assissi.  "Ecce 
Homo!"  with  admiration  they  exclaim.  The  self- 
righteousness,  self-complacency,  self-confidence  of 
such  need  to  be  summarily  cut  down  by  the  sweep  of 
the  Savior's  scythe:  "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you, 
except  a  man  be  born  from  above,  he  caniwi  see  the 


NEIGHBORS  IN  JEEICHO— AS  IN  JERUSALEM.         85 

Kingdom  of  God;"  "except  ye  be  converted," — turned 
about,  radically  changed  in  purpose,  thought  and  life, 
and  "become  as  little  children," — docile,  guileless, 
trustful  in  the  Father;  "ye  shall  not  enter  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven." 

There  be  others  like  the  "  certain  lawyei  "  who  de- 
sire to  know  "what  they  shall  do  to  inherit  eternal 
life."  The  summary  of  the  "Law,"  and  of  "pure  and 
undefiled  religion  "  they  unhesitatingly  admit  to  be, — 
to  love  God  with  all  the  heart,  soul,  mind  and 
strength;  but  when  enjoined  to  regard  their  neigh- 
bors as  they  do  themselves,  they  dubiously  or  sinis- 
terly  inquire :  "Who  is  my  neighbor?  There  have 
been  many  such  theologic  casuists  in  our  time :  the 
class  is  by  no  means  extinct,  who  find  their  neighbors 
only  in  Asiatic  idolaters,  and  in  the  cannibals  of  the 
Seas,  not  at  all  in  the  slaves'  or  freedmen's  huts  jutting 
to  their  own  dwellings, — victims  of  their  oppression, 
or  in  the  Chinese  huddled  in  their  basements.  There 
are  some  at  least  of  these  theologues,  farther  North, 
who  can  now  discern  him  only  among  the  freedmen; 
not  among  the  destitute  and  the  afflicted  on  their  own 
streets, — their  employees  or  servants  in  their  own 
dwellings.^ 

There  be  many  precious  'young  men,  not  far  ex- 
ternally, from  the  Kingdom, — of  pious  ancestry  per- 

I.  It  will  be  a  wonderful  thing,  some  day  or  other,  for  the 
Christian  world  to  remember,  that  it  went  on  thinking  for  two 
thousand  years,  that  neighbors  were  neighbors  at  Jerusalem,  but 
not  at  Jericho. — Ruskin. 

A  philanthropist — a  man  whose  charity  increases  as  the  square 
of  the  distance. — Middlemarch. 


86  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFK. 

haps  young  men  of  culture  secular  and  religious, 
and  some  of  great  wealth;  very  dutiful  to  parents, 
very  genial  in  society,  humanitarians,  "  modern  edi- 
tions of  the  Decalogue,"  having  "kept  the  law" — 
externally — "from  their  youth  up;  wedded  to  "culture 
with  a  slight  flavor  of  Christianity,"  "morality 
touched  with  emotion,"  who  seek  to  know  "what  ihey 
shall  do  to  inherit  eternal  life,"  but  who  have  not  re- 
alized that  they  are  stewards, — only  lease-holders, 
not  owners  in  absolute  fee  of  what  they  possess. 
They  need  to  be  summarily  told  and  thus  tested: 
"  Sell  all  that  you  have  and  give  to  the  poor."  Then, 
shall  you  "have  treasure  in  Heaven."  And  "come, 
follow  Me." 

What  shall  they  do  to  inherit  eternal  life?  The 
inheritance  is  conditioned  on  repentance,  on  con- 
tinued obedience  to  and  trust  in  the  Reconciling  One. 
Salvation  cannot  be  bartered  for.  There  can  be  no 
traffic  in  eternal  life,  though  Popes  some  times  have 
thought  to  make  a  corner  of  it.  It  is  not  negotiable 
and  purchasable  as  is  position,  or  office,  or  station, 
or  even  as  a  degree  ecclesiastic.  It  is  a  gracious  gift 
to  the  contrite  and  to  the  obedient.  Those  who  seek 
for  it,  must,  repenting  of  ^vrong  to  God  and  men, — 
turning  from  it,  have  such  faith  in  Him  Who  is  the 
Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life, — the  compassionate 
God  in  manifestation,  as  to  appropriate  to  themselves 
what  He  has  done, — that  which  was  not  possible  for 
them  to  do,  though  they  may  not  fully  comprehend 
how  the  saving  work  is  wrought.  Then  He  will  do 
all  that  is  necessary  to  be  done  for  them  personally, 
and  enable  them  to  do  what  they  ought  to  do.     Do? 


SELL  AND  GIVE.      FOLLOW  ME.  87 

Eepent  and  turn  to  God,  from  Wliom  hitherto  thou 
hast  been  averted.  If  thou,  O  rich  young  man!  en- 
amored of  earth,  would  be  saved  by  doing,  basing  all 
thy  hopes  of  attaining  the  Heavenly  inheritance  on 
commandment  keeping,  on  external  obedience,  hav- 
ing as  thou  dost  allege  "kept"  the  commandments 
severally,  "from  thy  youth  up;"  go  and  convert  thy 
material  means  into  money,  and  distribute  wisely  to 
the  poor,  and  from  a  holy  motive,  because  thou 
lovest  to  do  it;  because  thoh  recognizest  thy  stew- 
ardship ;  because  thou  f  eelest  it  is  thy  duty,  and  a 
privilege ;  because  I  command  thee  Who  alone  can 
save  thee, — give  thee  this  eternal  life;  then  "shalt 
thou  have  treasure  in  Heaven."  Then  "come  and 
follow  Me."  Thy  God  may  not  require  it  of  thee  in  the 
end,  but  thy  willingness  to  do  it  may  be  thus  tested 
by  Him,  as  was  that  of  Abraham  for  the  sacrifice  of 
his  son,  and,  of  this  "very  rich"  young  man  (Matth. 
xix:20,  Luke  xviii:21)  by  Jesus.  Ah!  who  does  not 
know,  that  to  do  all  this  may  be  to  encounter  poverty, 
self-denial,  tribulation,  persecution,  suffering,  perhaps 
death,  as  any  or  all  be  required?  This  is  to  follow 
Christ.  Doing  will  save  none,  but  if  any  one  desires 
to  be  saved,  he  will  do  whatever  he  can  do,  and  is 
required  of  him. 

Work  towards  thy  salvation,  O  soul !  with  fear  and 
trembling,  for  God  is  the  Worker-Out  of  it  in  you, — 
both  to  will  and  to  work  according  to  His  good  will. 
Phil,  ii:  12.^  "The  whosoever  will  are  the  elect,  the 
whosoever  wont  are  the  non-elect."  ^ 

I.  See  the  Greek,  also,  of  I  Cor.  xii:6,  ii,  Gal.  iii:5,  Col.  1:29, 
I  Thess.  ii:  13.  2.     Sam'l  P  Jones. 


88  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

The  most  that  the  mass  of  church  members,  it  is 
feared,  are  trying  to  do,  is  to  "keep  the  ten  command- 
ments"— creditable  indeed  to  the  extent  of  iJie  irying 
and  the  keeping;  and  with  respect  to  the  one  of 
the  two  in  which  the  Savior  said  was  comprised 
the  "law  and  the  prophets," — "Love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself,"  trying  to  keep  that,  so  far  as  is  consistent 
with  a  prime  regardf  or  their  self-interests.  If  any  one 
doubts  this,  let  him  take  up  the  character  of  each 
church  member,  put '  it  into  a  crucible,  thoroughly 
test  it  for  the  indestructible  residuum — the  incom- 
bustible asbestos  of  goodness  and  love,  somewhat  as 
the  Savior  did  the  "  very  rich"  young  man.  It  is  ap- 
prehended, that  most  of  them  as  they  were  tested  in 
being  required  to  do  some  thing  antagonistic  to  their 
master  passion,  their  habitual  spirit  and  practice, — 
involving  the  excision  of  some  right  hand  of  posses- 
sion, or  extinction  of  some  right  eye  of  desire, — the 
unconditional  surrender  of  some  thing  they  had  here- 
tofore idolized,  and  the  future  consecration  of  the 
same  to  the  holiest  of  causes,  and  especially  the 
practical  demonstration,  that  they  do  indeed  love 
their  neighbor  as  themselves, — ^w^ould  be  seen  walking 
away   "sorrowful  "  one  by  one. 

In  those  blessed  days  of  anticipation,  should  they 
come,  there  will  be  more,  it  is  believed,  of  what  is  de- 
scribed in  the  following  record:  And  there  was  one 
heart  and  one  soul  in  the  multitude  of  believers,  and 
not  one  regarded  his  possessions  as  his  own  (they 
considered  themselves  merely  stewards  of  what  they 

possessed),  but  had  all  things  common 

Neither  were  there  any  that  were  in  want,  for  such  as 


CHBISTIANITY  IS  THE  TRUTH  IN  LIFE.  89 

were  possessors  of  lands  or  houses, — selling  them  vol- 
untarily, and  from  Christian  impulsion, — not  from 
constraint  or  specific  requirement,  brought  the  pur- 
chase money  thereof,  and  laid  it  at  the  Apostles'  feet; 
and  distribution  was  made  to  every  one  who  had 
need.     Acts  iv:  32,  35. 

It  must  ever  be  impressed,  that  Christianity  in 
theory  or  practice,  is  not  merely  a  system  of  truth  or 
truths  presented  to  the  intellect — to  be  believed  or 
disbelieved  indifferently, — topics  of  speculation,  dis- 
cussion, development  and  application,  with  no  moral 
responsibility  involved  in  the  acceptance  or  rejection, 
as  one  may  believe  or  disbelieve,  discuss  and  apply 
certain  mathematical,  geological,  astronomical  or 
chemical  theories;  but  an  inward  and  outward  rule  of 
of  life,  prescribed  by  the  Lord  Jesus  the  Christ, — 
God  Himself  in  manifestation, — wrought  and  estab- 
lished in  the  heart  by  the  Spirit  through  the  palin- 
genesia  required.  The  results  will  be  seen  in  con- 
duct. Men  therefore  accept  or  reject  it  with  respon- 
sibility. The  understanding  may  give  assent  to  it,  as 
not  only  true,  but  may  commend  its  requirements  as 
just  and  reasonable;  but  if  there  is  no  acceptance  or 
recognition  in  the  heart;  if  there  is  no  exemplification 
in  the  life ;  if  he,  who  assents  to  it,  does  not  endeavor 
to  regulate  and  harmonize  his  interior  and  exterior 
life  with  it,  it  will,  in  him,  have  no  quickening  or 
conserving  power; — will  be  as  salt  without  savor; 
rather  he  will  on  account  of  the  incongruous  rela- 
tion become  a  shandalon  to  other  souls.  Woe  to  the 
orthodox  in  creed,  who  are  heterodox  in  life, — woe 
ever! 


90  THE  CHRI8T   IN   LIFE. 

He,  therefore,  who  would  obey  God,  be  Christ's 
disciple,  must  do  as  He  commanded — take  up  his 
cross,  follow  Him,  go  about  doing  good.  That  in- 
volves not  only  self-denial,  but  privation,  and  very 
often,  the  "tribulation"  foretold.  In  the  proceedings  of 
the  Judgment  Day  foresketched  by  Him,  He  repre- 
sents Himself  as  refusing  to  recognize  "many,"  not 
because  they  were  unsound  in  their  theological 
opinions,  but  because  they  did  not  illustrate  their 
professions  in  internal  and  external  conduct, — had 
neglected  to  minister  as  they  had  ability  and  oppor- 
tunity to  the  bodily  and  spiritual  necessities  of  men. 
Jesus  took  it  for  granted,  that  if  a  man  loved  God 
with  all  his  soul,  mind,  heart  and  strength,  he  would 
love  his  human  brothers,  and  that  he  could  not  be 
otherwise  than  humane  and  philanthropic. 

The  evidences,  it  is  repeated  and  urged,  of  the  pos- 
session of  Christianity,  are  not  mainly  even  in  assent 
to  a  creed, — in  stated  recitation  of  its  formulas,  in 
zeal  to  propagate  what  one  believes  and  feels  is  true 
and  pure.  Of  course  out  of  the  abundance  of 
one's  heart  will  he  speak.  If  indeed  one  is  a  child 
of  God,  a  regenerate  person,  a  Christian  believer,  he 
cannot  refrain  from  oral  or  emotional  expression  of 
the  fact;  he  will  manifest  it  in  conduct.  But  ,emo- 
tions  will  not  save,  nor  are  reliable  tests  of  spiritual 
state.  Their  inspiration  may  be  out  of  bodily  condi- 
tion, of  mood  or  environment, — of  earthly  or  celestial 
origin.  The  Christian  test,  since  Apostolic  times,  has 
been  too  exclusively,  what  does  one  mentally,  specu- 
latively believe?  what  does  he  think?  During  revival 
times  since,  the  test  has  been  disproportionally,  how 


CHRISTIANITY  IN  DEEDS  AS  IN  WOBDS.  9l 

does  one  feel?  In  last  days,  it  will  be,  what  does  one 
dOf  as  expository  or  illustrative  of  what  he  professes 
to  believe  and  feel?  How  does  he  live  in  his  family, 
and  in  presence  of  his  fellow  men?  What  shall  one 
do  ?  Not  only  what  he  does  in  ecclesiastical  relations, 
but  in  his  business,  on  the  streets,  in  his  office,  in  his 
family,  in  private,  when  and  where  there  is  no  eye 
but  God's  to  discern  him.  Do? — In  the  shrift  of  his 
innermost,  his  subtlest  offending, — deflection  from 
right,  duty,  purity! 

If  one  is  a  Christian,  he  will  endeavor  to  think, 
feel,  speak  and  act  rightly,  day  by  day,  whether  he  is 
conspicuous  in  attendance  or  participation  in  devo- 
tional meetings  or  not.  Right  conduct  in  the  family, 
on  the  streets,  in  his  office,  in  commercial  transac- 
tions, will  be  the  test  of  the  sincerity  and  genuineness 
of  profession, — of  possession.  There  are  direct  duties 
to  be  discharged,  and  their  performance  will  spring 
out  of  a  Christianized  heart.  One  will  of  course  ,a8 
opportunity  opens  and  duty  presses,  make  public  but 
not  ostentatious  manifestation  of  what  he  believes 
and  feels  to  be  the  Truth.  It  is  easy  to  be  zealous, 
fluent,  joyful  in  the  conference  or  the  devotional 
meeting,  out  of  the  natural,  inevitable  flow  of  gift, 
temperament,  mood,  circumstance, —  when  one  is 
well-to-do,  is  free  from  pecuniary  embarassment,  has 
ample  funds  available  at  any  moment, — to  provide  for 
all  the  physical  or  intellectual  necessities  of  himself 
and  family,  and  in  advance  ^for  months  or  years; 
when  digestion  is  good,  and  all  externally  goes  well 
with  him;  but  how  is  it  with  those  whose  physical, 
intellectual  and  spiritual  energies  have  been  absorbed 


92  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

during  the  day,  in  providing  the  means  of  subsistence 
for  their  families,  in  meeting  their  pecuniary  obliga- 
tions, in  keeping  the  gaunt  wolf  Want  from  their 
doors? 

Cornelius  may  or  may  not  have  been  a  fervid  ex- 
horter.  It  is  probable  he  was  not,  for  military  men 
are  more  given  to  deeds  than  words.  So  far  as  re- 
vealed, it  was  good  doing  in  inseparable  junction  with 
unostentatious  prayers,  and  probably  more  in  private 
than  in  public, — the  complement  of  a  well-ordered, 
symmetrically  developed  life,  that  went  up  for  a  me- 
morial before  God.  A  Christ-like  life  is  a  perpetual 
speech  and  a  ceaseless  prayer  in  the  presence  of  men 
for  their  souls.  There  are  too  many  mechanical, 
soulless,  formal  prayers.  They  do  not  rise  higher  than, 
if  as  high  as  the  petitions  of  idolaters  revolving  in  the 
cylinders  of  their  prayer-mills.  As  the  trust  of  the 
believer  ripens,  so  supremely  submissive,  uncondi- 
tioned will  it  be  in  his  Divine  Father, — so  absorbed 
will  he  be  in  inward  communion  with  Him,  in  re- 
quests unutterable, — every  hour,  that  less  often  will 
he  be  inclined  to  rise  in  the  public  gathering  for  the 
utterance  of  prayer;  if  outwardly  expressed,  it  will 
be  wrung  out  of  his  soul  by  the  exigencies  of  the  oc- 
casion,— realized  necessities  for  self  and  others;  will 
therefore  be  compressed,  energic,  ejaculatory  to  God, 
rather  than  oration  to  Him, — and  for  the  delectation 
of  hearers.^  In  realization  of  earthly  sorrows,  earthly 
wants,  God's  Almightiness,  man's  helplessness,  the 
soul  is  often  stricken  dumb;  if  it  speak  at  all,  it  will 

I.     The  most  eloquent  prayer  ever  addressed  to  a  Boston  audi- 
ence.— Boston  Editor  on  a  D.  D.^s  Prayer. 


GIFTS  NOR  GRACES  CONCLUSIVE  OF  SAINTSHIP.       93 

be  in  cries,  in  ejaculations,  in  interjections,  in  smitings 
on  the  breast,  in  uplifted  hands,  in  sighs  and  tears. 

It  has  been  said, — and  truly  .as  is  thought,  by  a  re- 
cent writer  on  Prayer,  that  sometimes,  at  least,  "the 
highest  development  of  faith,  no  less  than  its  non-ex- 
istence >may  conceivably  be  indicated  by  a  complete 
absence  of  petitionary  prayer."  ^ 

However  painful  to  sincere,  simple-hearted  disciples 
will  be  the  disenchantment, — it  is  presumed,  that 
keen  discerners,  and  ripe  in  observation  are  not  long 
deluded;  it  is  fact ,  that  gifts  in  speech  or  prayer  de- 
lusively taken  for  graces  in  ecclesiastical  life, — fired 
on  occasions,  apparently,  by  a  live  coal  from  the 
Divine  altar, — haloed,  seemingly  by  light  from  Heav- 
en, anointed  with  external  and  apparently  internal 
unction,  are  not  conclusive  evidence  of  saint-likeness, 
or  any  degree  of  saint-ship.  Often  they  have  been 
conjoined  with  utter  destitution  of  it.  The  Devil 
himself  has  been  very  unctuous  and  Scriptural. 
Doubtless  .many  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  who 
crucified  the  Lord  of  Glory,  and  he  who  went  up  with 
the  Publican  to  the  Temple  to  pray,  flaunting  the 
semblances  of  self-abasement  and  humility,  were  em- 
inent saints  of  their  time, — seemed  doubtless  to  the 
lowly,  sincere  worshippers,  humble  and  very  meek. 
Well  apprised  is  the  world  of  what  Papal  and  Epis- 
copal Bishops  have  done  under  the  cowl  of  Godliness 
and  saint-ship.  With  what  fervor  did  they  preach! 
with  what  unction  did  they  pray  at  the  Rack  or  the 
Stake!  Saul  of  Tarsus,  in  his  untempered  zeal,  haled 
Christian  men  and  women  to  prison, — so  deluded  as 

I.    John  H.  Jellett. 


94  THE  CHKIIST  IN   LIFE. 

to  believe,  he,  thereby,  did  God  service.  The  Holy 
Fathers  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  "ad  majorem 
gloriam  Dei,''  tortured,  with  devilish  ingenuity,  and 
burnt  myriads  of  Christian  heretics.  Jesuits  harassed 
and  imprisoned,  in  the  Inquisition  at  Goa,  descend- 
ants of  primitive  believers,  because  they  would  not 
conform.  Would  that  it  could  be  said  of  their  Prot- 
estant successors,  that  they  were  not  culpable  in  this 
regard!  It  has  been  estimated,  that  fifty  millions  per- 
ished through  the  diabolic  instrumentalities  of  the 
Papacy,  since  its  rise.  Of  the  ostentatiously  pious 
Philip  II  of  Spain,  Motley  declared:  "If  Philip 
possessed  a  single  virtue,  it  has  eluded  the  conscien- 
tious research  of  the  writer  of  these  pages.  If  there 
are  vices — as  possibly  there  are — from  which  he  was 
exempt,  it  is  because  it  is  not  permitted  to  human 
nature  to  attain  perfection  even  in  evil.  .  .  .  He 
said  of  himself,  on  his  death-bed,  *In  all  my  life,  I 
have  never  consciously  done  wrong  to  any  one.  If 
ever  I  have  committed  an  act  of  injustice,  it  was  done 
unwittingly,  because  deceived  by  circumstances.'  He 
told  his  son  to  observe  closely  his  father's  condition, 
that  when  he  was  laid  low,  he  might  have  a  conscience 
void  of  offense!" 

There  have  been  like  professions  and  manifesta- 
tions of  piety  in  modern  ecclesiastics, — crucifiers  of 
souls,  rather  than  bodies;  for  well  they  know,  that 
touching  bodies  in  these  times, — Church  and  State 
dissevered, — the  State  will  touch  theirs. 

Come  thou  instanter.  to  the  realization,  then,  meek- 
hearted  disciple,  and  spare  thyself  the  torturing  pain 
of  experience, — though  thou  should' st  be  charitable, 


THE  SPIEITUAL  NOT  NECESSARILY  CHRISTIAN.       95 

patient,  discriminating  to  the  last, — come  thou  in- 
stantly to  it;  otherwise  what  sorrow  of  heart,  if  not 
darkness  of  soul,  and  eclipse  of  faith  will  come  to 
thee,  when  the  deceptive  spell  broken,  the  delusion 
exposed,  thou  dost  finally  awake  to  the  painful  reality! 
Heed  the  Divine  test:  "By  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them," — not  by  the  foliage  of  their  professions. 
"Fruits!"  and  what  are  they?  ostentatious  display, 
or  manifestation  of  gifts,  external  graces?  Nay 
verily!  but  acts,  deeds,  words,  demeanor — conscious 
or  unconscious;  humility,  which,  while  it  doth  not 
prevent  or  forbid  just  estimate  of  one's  gifts  and  ac- 
quisitions, doth  lovingly  recognize  those  of  others; 
unselfishness,  ends  of  which  are  not  exclusively  self- 
centered;  justice,  which  gives  God  His  due,  as  well 
as  man  his;  love,  which  pities  the  transgressor  while  it 
abhors  his  crimes;  that  ministers,  according  to  ability 
and  opportunity,  to  those  in  want, — even  to  the  vile, 
the  abandoned,  enemies  of  God  and  men;  which  in- 
duces self-denial  and  self-sacrifice,  even  of  life  itself, 
if  evidently  required  in  God's  providence ;  that  depth 
and  degree  of  it,  if  attainable  .which  "beareth  all 
things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things,  en- 
dureth  all  things." 

"The  religious  sense,  viewed  as  the  simple  appre- 
hension of  a  spiritual  world,  is  in  itself  no  preserva- 
tive whatever  against  moral  obliquity.  The  term 
religion  stands  for  two  distinct  things.  It  both  stands 
for  the  ethical  thing  so-called,  i.  e.,  a  proper  state  of 
religious  habits  and  affections;  and  also  stands  for 
the  intellectual  or  metaphysical  thing  so-called,  i,  e.> 
the  sense  of ^  pr  belief  in  the  fact  of  a  spiritual  and 


96  THE  CHRIST   IN  LIFE. 

invisible  world  Spirituality  and  invisibility  are  not 
in  themselves  ethical,  but  metaphysical  ideas,  and  the 
sense  of  a  world  spiritual  is  no  more  an  ethical  sense 
in  itself,  than  the  sight  of  a  world  visible  is.  .  .  . 
— Supplying  a  spiritual  world  over  and  above  this 
visible  one,  is  a  most  important  addition  to  our  idea 
of  the  Universe,  and  enlarges  our  mental  prospect; 
but  it  does  not  of  itself  touch  our  moral  nature.  .  . 
The  moral  effect  of  a  spiritual  world  upon  us  .depends 
entirely  upon  what  we  make  that  world  to  be,  and 
what  we  make  that  world  to  be  depends  upon  our 
own  ethical  standard  and  perfections."  * 

The  foreign  missionary  has  been  selected  by  many 
as  the  best  type  of  Christianity, — for  self-abnegation, 
self-sacrifice,  disinterestedness,  purity  and  symmetry. 
It  is  possible,  however,  that  one  might  exile  and  iso- 
late himself  in  spiritual  deserts  through  morbid  ambi- 
tion,— restless  aspiration  for  glory,  and  be  deceived, 
and  deceiving,  with  the  supposition  that  he  was  being 
consumed  with  a  passion  for  souls.  The  Apostle 
thought,  that  such  deception  in  himself,  even,  was 
possible,  when  in  the  climax  of  specification  he  de- 
clared: "And  if  I  give  my  body  to  be  burned,  but  have 
not  love,  it  profiteth  me  nothing."  Thousands  of 
heathen  and  Papal  devotees  have  illustrated  such 
possibility  by  endurance  of  privation,  suffering  and 
death,  in  their  pilgrimages  to  shrines  of  idolatry; — 
thereafter  ,  and  therefor  were  canonized  as  saints. 
Unquestionably  many  foreign  missionaries  have  fur- 
nished some  of  the  noblest  illustrations  of  what 
Christianity  is  in  precept,  and  should  be  in  practice. 

I.     Mozley. — Cromwell. 


HOME  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONARIES.  97 

They  ,  nevertheless  in  common  with  all  classes  of  be- 
lievers are  to  be  tested, — not  exclusively  by  what 
they  are  on  dress-parade  at  home,  but  by  what  they 
are  in  private  life,  in  personal  intercourse — among  the 
heathen;  and  God  alone  knows  the  heart.  Such 
tests  good  men  expect,  and  do  not  protest  against. 
In  the  Home  field,  believers  are  daily  and  hourly 
thus  scrutinized,  not  only  by  worldlings,  but  by  their 
fellow  believers  among  whom  they  are  cast.  What 
Grace  has  failed  to  do  in  abrading  angularities, — 
straightening  or  repressing  crookedness  in  na- 
ture, is  more  or  less  symmetrized  and  rectified  by 
contact  and  attrition.  In  the  Foreign  field,  they  are 
not  so  much  exposed  to  scrutiny  and  criticism,  where 
the  moral  standard  is  so  low, — are  subject  very  little 
to  such  intellectual  or  moral  abrasion.  Unsanctified 
nature  has  indisputed  or  undisturbed  sway,  unless 
purified  and  sanctified  by  the  Christ  within.  The 
"Eooms"  are  too  far  distant  for  espionage,  unless  as 
were  the  system  and  the  practice  in  Jesuit  missions, 
each  missionary  is  set  as  a  spy  upon  every  other,  and 
to  report  thereon  and  statedly  to  "Head  Quarters." 
The  secret  history  of  Foreign  missions  reveals  the 
same  imperfections  and  infirmities,  that  exist  among 
brethren  of  the  same  faith  in  the  Home  field. 

The  days  for  the  most  part  of  missionary  peril  in 
foreign  lands  are  rapidly  passing  away,  and  the  ex- 
cessive glamour  therefrom  disappears  with  them. 
They ,  however  who  will  live  Godly,  in  the  Home  or 
Foreign  field,  will  as  ever  encounter  some  kind  or 
degree  of  persecution.     In  the  world,  anywhere,  they 

7 


98  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

will  have  tribulation.     As,  said  editorially,  the  New 
York  Independent  some  years  since: 

"The  majority  of  the  mission  stations,  occupied  by 
Protestant  missionaries,  are  within  the  temperate  zones 
or  in  climates  in  which,  with  proper  precaution,  healthy 
men  and  women  can  labor  and  keep  their  strength. 
Hundi-eds  of  foreigners,  men  and  women,  live  in  these 
same  countries,  in  the  various  pursuits  of  business  or 
in  the  government  civil,  military,  or  naval  service. 
.  .  .  To  carry  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen,  the  av- 
erage missionary  of  to-day  gets  into  a  palace-car,  and 
rides  to  a  first  class  ocean  steamship,  and  as  a  cabin 
passenger  braves  the  dangers  of  the  sea.  Often  his 
route  is  through  lands  of  classic  story,  or  the  glorious 
wonders  of  nature  and  art.  Arrived  at  his  destina- 
tion, he  has  a  comfortable  house  to  live  in,  with  fur- 
niture, coal,  candles  and  musquito  nets.  He  is  usually 
provided  with  a  good  doctor,  a  fair  teacher,  plenty  of 
nurses  and  servants.  Usually,  there  is  American  or 
English  society  in  the  same  town,  city,  or  neighbor- 
hood. In  almost  all  the  Asiatic  and  African  ports 
there  are  regular  mails.  If  his  health  fail,  he  can 
come  home.  His  salary,  though  small,  is  sufficient 
for  decent  support — sometimes  for  a  life,  which,  if 
not  luxurious,  is  far  superior  to  that  which  the  same 
person  in  the  struggle  for  fame,  place,  and  bread 
could  win  at  home.  If  he  has  archaeological  tastes, 
he  has  fascinating  opportunities  to  cultivate  them. 
Once  in  six  or  seven  years  he  can  return  home  to 
recruit." ' 

I.     It  cannot  be  denied,  that  the  pecuniary  support  given  to  the 
foreign  missionary,  is  more  liberal  than  that  which  home  mission- 


MISSION  ECONOMICS.  99 

The  truth  is  doubtless  that  the  best  representa- 
tives of  Jesus  Christ  are  found  among  the  obscure, 
the  untrumpeted  at  home  and  abroad,  who  have  been 
disciplined  by  trial  and  purified  by  suffering.  Jesus 
so  designated,  and  Peter  so  emphasized  in  his  first 
epistle. 

Activity  in  all  the  departments  of  Christian  labor, 
has  amazingly  increased  during  the  last  fifty  years, 
in  sympathy  with  the  quickened  pace  of  secular  af- 

aries  on  the  frontier,  or  pastors  of  average  country  churches  re- 
ceive. .  .  .  Judging  from  his  recollections,  and  from  what  he 
has  since  observed,  he  is  of  opinion,  that  he  himself  lived  more 
comfortably,  and  with  a  good  deal  less  pinching,  on  half  of  his 
missionary  salary,  than  two- thirds  of  the  Baptist  pastors  in  the 
country  parishes  of  New  England  upon  the  whole  of  theirs. 

An  intelligent  Christian  lady  after  making  the  tour  of  China 
and  other  Eastern  lands,  is  said  to  have  remarked,  "  I  can  never 
again  say  'poor  missionaries ;'  let  me  always  say,  since  I  have  seen 
them  in  their  homes,  'good  missionaries.'"  The  comfort,  the  ab- 
solute neatness,  the  trained  servants,  the  unostentatious  elegance 
even,  which  are  found  in  so  many  missionary  homes  abroad  (in- 
cluding my  own  old  home  in  Rangoon,  perhaps),  would  strike  the 
great  majority  of  our  contributing  friends,  if  they  could  see  them, 
with  surprise,  if  not  with  a  measure  of  disapproval. — Rev.  C.  H. 
Car f  enter. — Mission  Economics. 

[Mr.  C.  was  for  many  years,  a  devoted  and  successful  mission- 
ary among  the  Karens,  sent  out  and  sustained  by  the  Am.  Baptist 
Missionary  Union.  He  and  his  wife  have  recently  gone  to  Japan 
to  labor  in  an  individual  mission,  depending  chiefly  on  faith,  that 
they  will  be  sustained  by  the  prayers  and  material  means  of  the 
friends  that  God  will  provide  for  them.  Their  trust  in  Him  has 
been  signally  honored  and  blest.] 

In  the  Chicago  (Cong.)  Advance  oi  Dec.  2,  1886,  a  Home  mis- 
sionary is  "  tempted  to  make  a  personal  statement"  which  "  I  doubt 


100  THE  CHKIiST   IN   LIFE. 

fairs,  in  striking  contrast  with  the  staid  movements 
of  Christians  previously.  Then,  there  were  but  few 
Sunday  Schools,  few  night  meetings,  few  benevolent 
societies.  While  unquestionably,  it  is  healthful  that 
Christian  enterprise  should  be  thus  stimulated,  and 
the  social  element  be  developed ;  yet  it  must  not  be 
forgotten,  that  God  does  not  work  in  His  material  or 
His  Spiritual  Kingdom,  so  far  as  one  can  discern,  as 
most  men  do  in  worldly  matters.  He  is  never  in  a 
huiTy,  nor  are  divine  influences  ordinarily  wrought 
thus  in  souls.  "  Nothing  is  more  "voilgar  than  haste."  ^ 
True,  the  instant  comes  when  a  decisive  change,  as  in 
regeneration,  takes  place.  But  who  has  been  able  to 
discern  the  long  train  of  influences  preceding  such 
result?  Some  appear  to  ripen  rapidly  for  Gehenna, 
and  others  as  quickly  for  Heaven.     But  there  were 

not,"  he  says,  "  will  represent  the  case  of  about  all  our  home  mission- 
aries." He  has  the  care  of  three  churches,  scattered  over  a  territory 
of  500  square  miles.  He  has  preached  every  Sabbath  morning, 
and  at  one  of  the  other  places  in  the  afternoon ;  for  some  time 
preached  again  in  the  evening;  has  eighty -four  families  under  his 
care,  visiting  them  with  his  wife  twice  a  year  at  least. — The  only 
Protestant  English-speaking  minister  on  500  square  miles.  "  It 
requires  strong  faith  and  some  pluck  to  do  this  work,  especially 
when  you  have  to  face  a  Nebraska  blizzard."  His  family  consists 
of  six,  and  he  received  during  the  last  year  $486.10. — One  quarter's 
salary  due  him  from  the  Society  on  last  3'ear ;  owes  much  more 
than  this;  creditors  want  their  money.  Last  year  built  a  parso- 
nage ;  gave  $50  towards  that,  now  pays  $40  rent  a  year,  to  pay 
back  the  loan  of  the  Union.  The  hope  of  one  of  his  boys,  who 
greatly  desires  a  higher  education,  must  be  given  up.  *'  The  eco- 
nomic lines  must  contract  a  little  more.  The  account  must  be 
balanced  by  faith.  If  comforts  decrease,  faith  must  increase." 
I.    Emerson. 


INFLUENCE  IN  A  CHRISTIAN  HOME.  101 

series  of  antecedents  looking  to  such  consequent. 
Ordinarily,  good  or  bad  character  is  slow  in  growth, 
as  men  count  slowness.  Christian  influence  is  the 
outgrowth  of  fidelity,  purity,  consistency,  for  years. 
So  that,  it  is  a  question  for  consideration,  whether 
this  increased  activity  in  Christian  enterprise,  the 
multiplication  of  religious  instrumentalities,  the  nu- 
merous meetings — for  children  especially — have  not 
been  attended  with  superficiality  in  religious  thought, 
shallowness  of  convictions,  with  want  of  discrimina- 
tion and  thoroughness  in  the  application  of  properly 
rigid  tests  of  the  alleged  change  wrought  in  the  soul, 
and  of  fitness  for  a  public  profession  of  the  same, — 
the  opposite  of  which  was  characteristic  of  those 
times,  when  families  lived  more  at  home,  when  chil- 
dren were  not  so  often  at  protracted  night  meetings, 
nor  were  exposed  to  such  questionable  public  and 
private  influences  of  the  religiously  inane  and  indis- 
creet; in  a  word,  when  the  Family  was  believed  not 
only  to  be  a  divine  institution,  but  prior  to  the  church 
in  order  and  value. 

For  physiological  reasons,  both  with  respect  to  the 
body  generally  and  te  the  brain  in  particular,  after 
the  excitement  of  the  school  or  the  play-ground, 
children  should  be  more  at  home  of  nights.  If  Chris- 
tian parents  are  true  to  their  responsibilities,  there 
would  not  be  such  dependence  on  external  religious 
influences.  However  valuable  these  multiplied  in- 
strumentalities are  to  communities  generally,  and 
they  are  unquestionably  such  to  many,  especially  to 
the  orphan  and  the  homeless,  they  can  never  equal 
those  of  faithful  Christian  parents  in  the  family  circle 


102  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

supercetie,  or  be  Bubstituted  for  them.  Sometimes, 
when  parents  cau  gather  their  children  together  and 
enter  upon  intimate  converse  with  them,  they  are 
withdi-a-wii  to  the  hands  of  strangers,  whose  influence 
may  be  more  or  less  in  conflict  with  parental  views  of 
truth  and  duty.  When  such  meetings  are  made 
auxiliary,  subsidiary  and  subordinate  to  duties,  re- 
sponsibilities and  privileges  in  the  Christian  family, 
they  are  well;  otherwise  they  are  not  well.  The 
Divine  movements  in  souls  are  orderly; — manifested 
in  the  "still,  small  voice,"  rather  than  in  the  storm, 
"the  earthquake,"  or  the  "fire;" — harmonious  and  co- 
operative, it  is  believed,  with  attention  to  relations  in 
life,  and  with  the  punctilious  discharge  of  the  duties 
arising  from  them.  If  children  are  genuinely  moved 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  to  seek  the  salvation  of  their 
souls,  they  will  be  more  likely  to  find  the  precious 
boon  in  the  quiet  of  their  parental  homes,  especially 
if  Christian;  and  in  communion  with  God  alone,  in 
the  solitude  of  their  own  chamber, — for  the  work  is 
between  them  and  Him  alone.  What  unhallowed 
hand  shall  dare  to  protrude  itself  between  the  soul 
and  God? ^ 

That  profession  of  regeneration,  that  is  coupled 
with  neglect  of  duties  springing  out  of  relations  in 
the  Home,  is  to  be  suspected.     "God  setteth  the  sol- 
itary in  families,"  for  what?  It  is  not,  that  chikb'en 
and  even  adults  lack  for  preaching,  exhortation  and 

I.  Some  ministers,  and  subalterns  trained  by  them,  in  their 
"  zeal  not  according  to  knowledge,"  have  undertaken  to  destroy 
the  influence  of  Christian  parents  over  their  children,  when  those 
parents  would  not  fall  into  the  line  of  their  winter  campaigns. 


THE  POTENCY  OF  THE  SEASONABLE  WORD.  103 

prayer  on  their  behalf.  It  is  feared,  many  have  too 
much  of  them  for  spiritual  effect — for  permanent 
influence. 

It  is  the  seasonable  word,  that  is  "good"  and  po- 
tential, not  the  indiscriminate  and  superfluous  ha- 
rangue. It  is  not  only  the  word,  but  the  word  in 
"season."  Seek  thou  for  it,  O  zealous  believer! 
He  is  the  wise,  and  will  prove  to  be  the  successful 
winner  of  souls,  who  is  not  only  ready  with  the  word, 
but  bides  patiently,  vigilantly,  for  its  junction  with 
the  opportunity.  As  astronomers,  after  the  prepara- 
tion of  months, — a  journey  of  thousands  of  miles,  and 
the  expense  of  many  thousands  of  dollars,  wait  vigi- 
lantly at  the  eye  of  the  telescope  for  the  precise  in- 
stant of  a  planetary  conjunction,  so  must  he  who 
would  be  instrumental  in  the  salvation  of  a  sou]  bide 
for  the  auspicious  moment,  when  it  is  privileged  to 
speak  to  it  the  word  of  love.  The  opportunity  of 
placing  a  heart  palpitating  with  the  passion  of  its 
Master,  if  only  for  one  point  of  time — in  close  con- 
tact with  another's, — away  from  God,  is  very  precious; 
it  must  be  improved;  it  may  be  enjoyed  no  more. 

As  many  special  meetings  are  conducted,  anxious 
persons  are  led  to  seek  for  help  in  circles  and  meas- 
ures exterior  to  God,  and  to  rely  on  them  for  spiritual 
relief.  The  truth  is  not  pressed,  that  the  troubled 
soul  must  come  in  contact,  individually,  personally, 
directly  with  its  Maker.  The  cry  must  be:  "Lord, 
save  me,  or  I  perish!"  The  work  of  grace  in  a  soul 
cannot  be  hurried.  God  will  take  His  own  time  and 
way  to  work  it,  when  that  soul  is  brought  to  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  realization  of  helplessness.     He  alone 


104  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

knows,  what  preceding  disciplinary  process  is  neces- 
sary in  each  particuhir  case,  before  the  Heavenly  end 
can  be  attained.  Admitting,  that  there  must  be  line 
upon  line,  and  precept  upon  precept,  in  admonition 
and  exhortation ;  it  is  better,  that  anxious  and  inquir- 
ing souls  should  digest  and  improve  what  they  have 
been  recipients  of  for  so  many  years,  than  to  be  en- 
couraged to  pend  their  hopes  on  more,  as  means  for 
transformation.  It  is  essential  as  the  first  step  to 
secure  the  weal  of  a  soul,  to  knock  from  under  it  all 
its  false  props  in  reliance  on  measures  and  persons 
external, — to  bring  it  without  delay  to  confront  its 
Maker;  to  teach  it  that  in  such  an  exigency,  vain  is 
the  help  of  man ;  that  it  is  alone  in  Him. 

The  day  is  given  for  toil,  the  night  for  rest, — Spring, 
Summer  and  Autumn,  to  the  agriculturist, — for  seed- 
time, cultivation  and  harvest; — Winter  for  compara- 
tive leisure  and  rest.  The  human  brain  cannot  en- 
dure protracted  tension.  It  must  have  the  alternation 
of  relaxation  from  occupation.  Jesus,  as  He  did  all 
other  necessities  in  physiology,  recognized  this.  "Let 
us  go  to  a  secluded  place,"  said  He  to  the  disciples, 
"and  rest  awhile."  On  His  human  side.  He  realized 
His  individual  need  for  rest, — relaxation  from  spirit- 
ual strain,  and  hasted  frequently  to  the  solitary 
mountain  or  the  lonely  valley, — away  from  men,  to 
sweet  silence,  where  human  babble  and  the  roar  of 
traffic  could  not  penetrate, — for  rest,  that  boon  for 
the  wearied  one. 

Intellectual  energy,  spiritual  vitality  for  the  Mas- 
ter's work  seem  to  wax  and  wane  inversely  with  the 
seasons.     Combined  efforts  to  move  society  in  social, 


TIMES  AND  SEASONS  SHOULD  BE  IMPROVED.        105 

political  or  religious  life,  are  adjusted  to  the  recur- 
rence of  these  periods — these  physical  states. 

Favorable  times  and  seasons  should  be  improved; 
but  though  men  are  variable  and  changeable; 
through  the  seasons  as  they  come  and  go,  God  is 
ever  the  same,  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever.  With 
Him  there  is  no  parallax,  neither  shadow  of  turning. 
He  will  bless  in  Summer  as  in  Winter,  if  men  will 
seek  Him.  Christianity  is  a  work  for  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  days,  as  well  as  for  fifty-two. 

There  are  indeed  periods  when  men  are  sunk  in 
spiritual  apathy,  and  the  churches — deadened  in 
worldliness  have  little  or  no  spiritual  vitality.  Ne- 
cessity is  laid  upon  some  to  take  God's  Trump,  and 
to  attempt  to  rouse  them.  He  may  require  for  the 
work  such  special  instrumentalities  and  measures. 
These  men,  in  all  ages,  by  their  peculiar  gifts,  and  by 
the  spiritual  necessities  of  their  times,  have  been 
summoned  in  Providence  to  blow  an  alarm,  and  to 
lead  to  spiritual  assault  upon  powers  of  darkness — 
the  world,  the  flesh  and  the  Devil;  to  cry  with  John, 
and  in  the  name  of  their  Master:  "Eepent!  Eepent!" 
to  "turn  men's  ears  into  eyes,"  that  they  may  see  them- 
selves on  the  brink  of  perdition  as  did  Whitefield;  to 
press  them  by  the  inexorable  logic  of  conscience, 
reason  and  revelation,  backed  by  those  "two  shooters 
of  keen,  gray,  individualizing  eyes,"  and  by  leveled 
finger,  to  flee  from  the  Wrath  To  Come,  as  did  Fin- 
ney; to  exclaim  with  Nettleton,  "Lost!  Lost!  Lost!" 
with  thrilling,  varied  tones  and  inflections;  to  impress 
by  earnestness  and  sincerity  the  necessity  of  believ- 
ing in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  if  hearers  would  be 


106  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

saved,  as  does  Moody;  to  cry  to  Christendom,  and 
against  Devildom,  in  alternation  of  brilliant  denunci- 
ation and  pathos,  of  sarcasm,  geniality  and  humor,  to 
quit  their  meanness,  and  to  keep  the  ten  command- 
ments, as  doth  Jones. 

God  summons  such,  and  will  ever,  as  He  did  of 
old.  Hear,  O  Christian  Israel!  and  infatuated  chil- 
di-en  of  the  world!  Listen  to  these  mighty  and  im- 
pressive summons  as  they  come  booming  over  the 
Past, — indeed  <  directly  from  God  Himself,  for  they 
can  ever  be  heard,  if  men  will  apply  the  spiritual 
sense  of  hearing  to  the  Telephone  of  their  consciences, 
— of  the  voice  of  God  through  His  Spirit,  and  in  His 
Word: — Kepent!  Believe!  Escape  for  thy  life! 
There's  but  a  step  'twixt  thee  and  death! 

The  distribution  of  one's  abundance  to  the  needy, 
and  to  evangelic  enterprises,  has  been  and  will 
always  be  a  positive  duty  of  believers.  When  cheer- 
fully made,  and  from  Christian  impulsion,  it  is  one 
of  the  best  tests  of  genuine  belief  and  trust  in  Him, 
Who  gave  His  life  for  the  life  of  men;  and  since  a 
voluntary  offering  of  anything  cherished  evinces  the 
sincerity  of  the  offerer.  But  with  respect  to  the  dis- 
proportionate attention  given  to  the  raising  of  money 
by  some,  for  ambitious  purposes  inside  and  outside  of 
their  sect,  as  demonstrative,  illustrative  and  conclusive 
of  ecclesiastical  efficiency  and  piety;  this  criticism 
must  be  made.  It  would  conduce  more  effectually  to 
the  edification  of  humanity,  if  these  sects  would  be 
more  careful  in  testing  the  Christian  professions  of 
applicants  for  admission  to  their  fold,  and  then,  when 


MONEY-GIVING  NOT  THE  WHOLE  OP  CONDUCT.      107 

they  are  in,  to  watch  over  them,  to  educate,  develop, 
train  them — especially  novitiates,  for  efficiency  in 
the  Kingdom,  not  to  be  sectarians,  but  disciples,  fol- 
lowers of  the  Master;  to  faithfully  reprove  them 
when  they  falter  or  fall  from  their  high  estate;  and 
to  proceed  unhesitatingly,  in  the  exhaustion  of  Chris- 
tian patience,  to  the  act  of  final  excision,  when  they 
prove  to  be  utterly  incorrigible, — unworthy  of  the 
Christian  name,  and  therefore  of  Christian  fellow- 
ship. What  the  sects  need  most  is  to  furnish  the 
best  illustrations  possible  of  Christianity  in  every 
sphere  of  life,  in  the  church,  in  the  family,  in  busi- 
ness. Money  is  needed  for  ecclesiastical,  sectarian 
advancement, — for  evangelic  purposes;  but  living 
exemplifications  of  all  the  Christian  graces  much 
more,  of  which  money-giving  is  only  one.  Not  ar- 
tistically constructed,  elaborately  chased  and  embel- 
lished Lamp-Stands  of  Gold,  will  illuminate  the  dark- 
ness of  the  world,  but  the  Electric  Light  of  Truth, 
flaming  out  of  them.  If  Grace  is  in  the  soul,  money 
will  come  fast  enough,  as  objects  commend  them- 
selves to  it.  It  will  surely  come  as  the  life  is  hid 
with  Christ  in  God. 

While  much  benevolence,  necessarily,  finds  duct 
into  the  great  reservoir  of  Christian  enterprise  and 
charity,  to  be  distributed  by  them  through  ramified 
channels  to  Want, — to  spiritual  destitution  among 
the  heathen,  and  the  unevangelized  in  Christendom, 
and  that  doubtless  .wisely  and  economically  in  most 
instances;  still  it  is  believed,  that  generally  the  ne- 
cessities of  the  needy  in  one's  own  circle  of  pri^^ato 
search  and  inquiry  can  be  met  with  much  more  effi- 


108  THE  CHlilST  IN  LIFE. 

ciency,  than  through  the  paid  or  unpaid  sei-vices  of 
almoners  or  agents,  and  with  richer  blessing  both  to 
giver  and  recipient  when  they  come  in  contact;  with 
saving  of  the  percentage  of  expense.  Many  years 
since,  there  was  a  "Charity  Ball"  in  Chicago,  at 
which  men  and  women  dressed  themselves  fantasti- 
cally, and  danced  until  the  small  hours  of  night. 
Expenses  greatly  exceeded  income,  and  Charity  was 
left  seriously  in  debt. 

The  prescription  of  the  Master  comes  in  to  regu- 
late and  test.  Take  heed  .that  ye  do  not  your  alms 
before  men  to  be  seen  of  them,  else  ye  have  no  re- 
ward of  your  Father  Who  is  in  Heaven.  But  when 
thou  doest  alms,  do  not  trumpet  it  before  you,  as  the 
hypocrites  do,  etc.  .  .  .  Let  not  thy  left  hand 
know  what  thy  right  hand  doeth :  that  thine  alms  may 
be  in  secret,  and  thy  Father  Wlio  seeth  in  secret, 
shall  recompense  thee  openly.  Matth.  vi :  1-5.  But 
then,  good  deeds  should  be  known.  The  light  of 
them  should  not  be  concealed.  Sometimes  ,it  becomes 
necessary,  that  the  world  should  be  apprised  of  the 
benevolent  act,  for  the  sake  of  the  holy  motive  and 
the  exemplary  influence.  And  here  comes  in  again, 
the  permit,  the  authorization,  indeed  the  positive  re- 
quirement of  the  Great  Teacher:  So  let  your  light 
shine  before  men,  that  they  may  see  your  good  works, 
and  glorify  your  Father  Who  is  in  Heaven.  Matth. 
v:16. 

It  must  be  hinted,  in  this  connection,  that  the 
means  and  methods  of  money-raising,  oft-times 
employed  are  questionable,  degrade  objects,  and 
are  sometimes  disingenuous.     The  Master  and  His 


DUTY  AND  MOTIVE  IN  GIVING.  109 

Apostolic  servants,  when  they  required  money  for 
Christian  enterprises,  appealed  directly  to  the  philan- 
thropic  spirit,  and  to  the  Christian  obligation, — not 
through  the  appetite  for  luxuries  or  delicacies;  nor 
would  they,  it  is  believed,  have  tolerated  without  re- 
buke the  prevalent  strife  and  vain-glory, — to  be  a 
Banner-church,  or  Banner-Sunday  school  or  class  for 
the  amounts  given, — the  end  of  which,  the  prize 
sought,  would  be  an  emblazoned  standard,  or  an  en- 
graved certificate.  Cheap  and  vapid!  Totally  un- 
worthy of  those  engaged  in  such  ethereal  work! 
Certain  it  is,  that  the  giving  of  money  thus  educed, 
will  not  develop  and  intensify  the  benevolent  spirit 
in  the  giver,  which  was  one  of  the  designs  of  the 
Master,  in  the  injunction  to  "Give."  "In  Christ's 
day,  men  gave  themselves,  not  a  guinea,  when  an  ap- 
peal was  made."  ^ 

Pulpit  castigation  of  members  of  churches  who  do 
not  give  as  liberally,  as  is  deemed  they  should — to 
varied  and  multiplied  objects  .presented  on  Lord's 
Day,  indicates  a  low  degree  of  Christian  refinement 
and  delicacy,  and  a  lack  of  appreciation  of  the 
"equality"  which  the  Apostle  urged. 

The  measure  of  the  duty  of  money-giving  should 
be  left  as  the  Master  left  it,  to  the  individual  sense 
of  duty.  Giving  of  money  there  must  be,  and  should 
be.  But  it  must  come  from  voluntary,  cheerful 
givers.  Giving  the  same  from  any  other  impulsion 
than  Christian,  will  not,  it  is  believed,  be  twice 
blessed — on  him  who  gives,  and  him  or  it  receiving. 

I.     Ecce  Deus. 


110  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

The  silver  and  the  gold,  the  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills 
are  God's,  and  He  can  save  this  world  without  a  dol- 
lar from  His  childi'en. 

The  circumstances  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes, 
their  duties  and  obligations  to  those  dependent  on 
them,  are  not  properly  considered  by  the  whip- 
pers-in. 

If  three-fourths  of  the  "  three-fourths  "  of  life — al- 
lotted to  "conduct"  by  the  Essayist,  (the  remaining 
one-fourth  reserved  for  lip-service )  consist  in  money- 
giving;  then  there  remain  only  three-sixteenths  for 
every  other  kind  of  "conduct,"  to  complete  the  sym- 
metry of  Christian  life. 

As  most  evangelical  churches  in  cities  are  com- 
posed, the  average  income  of  the  majority  of  the 
heads  of  the  families  therein  .does  not  amount  to  over 
five  or  six  hundred  dollars  per  annum.  They  toil  or 
are  given  to  their  vocations,  on  long  hours  for  six  days 
of  the  seven,  with  rarely  a  vacation,  or  other  inter- 
mission of  labor.  If  they  are  sick,  their  income 
ceases,  and  they  must  pay  their  medical  bills  in  full. 
No  annual  or  occasional  donations  come  to  them — no 
gold  watches,  pianos,  seal-skin  cloaks,  marriage  fees, 
passes  on  rail  roads,  free  admission  to  scientific  or 
literary  entertainment;  and  they  are  never  sent  to 
Europe  with  a  generous  outfit,  for  rest  and  recrea- 
tion,— with  no  intermission  of  salary. 

If  their  position  and  income  are  regular  and  per- 
manent,— reckoning  the  same  as  interest  at  only  five 
per  cent,  per  annum ;  the  principal  or  the  capital  in 
their  business  or  profession  may  be  said  to  be  worth 
from  $10,000  to  $12,000. 


BIGHT  OR  WKONG  CONDUCT.  Ill 

If  a  Pastor  receives  $10,000  per  annum  for  regular 
salary  alone,  the  principal  or  capital  of  his  profession 
may  be  said  to  be  worth,  at  the  same  rate,  $200,000; 
if  he  receives  $5,000,  or  $2,500,  it  may  be  said  to  be 
respectively  worth  $100,000,  or  $50,000. 

Whether  therefore  ye  eat  or  drink,  or  whatsoever 
ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God.  I  Cor.  x:31.  This 
must  be  the  external  guide  for  all  those  who  fear 
God,  and  who  would  follow  His  Son.  A  Christian 
surely  cannot  engage  in  any  business,  participate  in 
any  amusement,  go  anywhere,  in  which  and  where, 
he  has  reason  to  believe,  he  could  not  receive  the  ap- 
proval of  his  Master.  He  ate  with  publicans  and 
sinners.  He  permitted  the  fallen  to  approach  Him, — 
in  fact,  sought  them,  that  they  might  receive  good 
from  the  contact,  and  that  He  might  lift  them  up  to 
His  Divine  level.  To  Him  the  disciple  standeth  or 
falleth.  Each  one  must  decide  and  answer  for  him- 
self,— scrutinizing  his  inclinations  and  prejudices, 
lest  they  sway  or  warp  his  Christian  judgment; — be 
willing  to  correct  that  interested  decision  by  the  dis- 
interested one  of  his  brethren,  unless  an  enlightened 
conscience  forbids. 

There  must  be  some  distinction  between  the  lawful 
and  the  unlawful  occupation  of  time, — a  line  drawn 
somewhere  between  the  lawful  and  the  unlawful  in 
practice.  This  is  one  of  the  great  questions,  that 
presses  itself  upon  the  attention  of  Christians  to-day: 
"  What  do  ye  more  than  others  ?  "  Do  not  even  the 
tax-gatherers,  the  wealth-  and  the  amusement-seekers, 
the  same?    This  is  the  challenge  of  the  world  to 


112  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

cliurcli  members.  They  must  meet  it,  or  be  trampled 
under  the  hoof  of  the  sneer.  Better  were  dynamite 
put  under  each  of  the  church  edifices,  and  they  blown 
into  flinders;  better  were  the  churches  themselves 
torn  asunder,  resolved  to  their  individual  elements, 
if  they  cannot  respond  satisfactorily  to  the  sarcastic 
inquiry. 

Still  it  is  evident  the  Creator  never  designed,  that 
the  social  tendency,  the  desire  to  realize  and  to  see 
realized  the  Ideals  of  a  serious  or  humorous  charac- 
ter should  be  repressed;  only  that  they  be  sanctified 
and  applied  for  a  holy  use.  One  temperament  must 
not  prescribe  regimen  or  relaxation  for  another.  It 
is  believed,  our  Father  would  have  every  nature  de- 
veloped to  the  utmost,  and  refined  to  the  highest  de- 
gree. Each  class  of  mind  and  temperament  must 
have  aliment,  and  contribute  its  portion  to  the  weal 
of  every  other. 

All  men  must  have  change  of  occupation,  relaxa- 
tion and  rest.  To  the  pure  all  things  are  pure ;  but 
to  them  that  are  defiled  and  unbelieving,  nothing  is 
pure,  but  both  their  mind  and  conscience  are  defiled. 
Titus  i:15.  The  Ideals  of  Truth,  Beauty,  Goodness 
and  Love  are  the  Creations  of  God  in  the  soul.  "Art 
is  imitation  of  God."  ^  Man,  originally,  was  an  Ideal 
of  God.  One  has  it  in  heroic  enterprise;  another  in 
painting,  sculpture,  architecture,  oratory,  poetry  or 
the  drama.  But  the  Christian  ought  not  to  do  or  say 
anything, — go  to  any  place,  in  which  and  where,  he 

I.    Goethe. 


BIGHT  INDULGENCE  IN  AMUSEMENTS.  113 

will  not  have  "  a  conscience  void  of  offense  toward 
God  and  toward  men."  There  is  so  much  positive 
good  needed  to  be  done, — so  few,  and  so  short  a  time 
to  do  it,  that  not  many  earnest  workers  in  the  Harvest 
Field  deem  it  justifiable  to  suspend  or  intermit  their 
labors  of  love  for  the  gratification  of  tastes,  or  for 
indulgence  in  amusements.  Those  who  can  do  so 
conscientiously  are  not  to  be  censured  by  their 
brethren.  To  their  Master  -.they  stand  or  fall.  But 
the  Devil  has  pressed  so  many  of  these  "amusements" 
into  his  service  ;and  defiled  them ;  the  circumstances 
and  the  associations  of  some  of  them  are  so  vile,  that 
they  cannot  be  handled  or  participated  in  without 
bodily  or  spiritual  harm.  Example  is  potent  with 
the  young,  the  inexperienced,  the  frail,  the  combust- 
ible in  appetite  or  passion.  The  followers  of  Jesus 
Christ  are  not  permitted,  in  physical  or  intellectual 
indulgence,  to  become  skandala  to  the  weak,  or  per- 
nicious examples  to  the  young.  And  it  is  earnestly 
inquired,  whether  there  is  not  enough  of  the  tragic 
enacted  in  the  serious  realities  of  this  life;  whether 
if  it  please,  there  is  not  enough  of  the  comic  for 
amusement  in  ordinary  experience  and  observation  — 
to  provoke  mirth,  without  resort  — for  the  representa- 
tion of  the  actual  or  of  the  imaginary,  the  unreal  and 
the  impossible,  to  the  stage,  the  masquerade,  or  the 
circus.  Jesus  .in  discourse  for  the  highest  purposes, 
and  with  serious,  earnest  intent,  seized  upon  analogies 
in  nature, — the  beautiful,  the  picturesque,  the  useful, 
— flowers,  trees,  harvest  fields  and  light, — the  real 
or  the  possible  in  history;  oft  that  which  was  tragical, 

8 


114:  THE  CHRI8T  IN   LIFE. 

indeed  common  incidents,  to  illustrate  and  to  enforce 
truth,  duty.  He  never  trifled  in  intercourse,  though 
He  was  genial.  Life  in  His  vision  was  too  serious 
for  trivial,  effervescent,  evanescent  indulgence.  The 
future  was  so  momentous,  Heaven  so  glorious,  Ge- 
henna so  black,  hopeless,  remediless,  time  so  short, — 
He  could  not  descend  and  grovel.  Souls  in  conflict 
with  powers  of  darkness — striving  to  drag  them  down, 
angels,  spirits  of  the  just  beseeching,  entreating,  was 
tragedy  enough.  He  revealed  no  comedies  in  Para- 
dise or  Gehenna. 

Though  disciples  could  not,  if  expedient,  rise  to 
the  sublimity  and  the  purity  of  His  ideal  and  real, 
they  may  find  ample  scope  for  the  development  of 
the  Imagination,  the  satisfaction  of  the  grave  thought, 
the  lawful  emotion,  in  the  sublime  and  beautiful  in 
nature,  or  in  current  life.  Pantomime  or  Histrion- 
ism,  unless  they  elevate  the  mind  and  purify  the 
heart,  must  be  deleterious.  There  are  many  attitudes, 
bodily  postures,  and  mental  exercises,  not  conducive 
to  purity,  which  are  not  once  to  be  named  among  be- 
lievers,— "filthiness"  in  act,  word  or  innuendo,  "fool- 
ish talking,"  "jesting."  Even  those  enacted  fictions, 
which  are  intended  to  illustrate  the  heroic,  the  sad, 
and  the  pathetic  in  human  history,  deaden  in  time 
the  sensibilities,  by  the  repetition  of  emotions  which 
are  not  put  to  use,  developed,  disciplined,  refined,  in 
practical  doing. 

Why  is  it,  is  a  topic  of  constant  inquiry,  that  the 
presentation  of  the  Gospel,  enforced  by  the  practice 
of  individuals   and  churches,  is  not  attended  with 


WHY,  PBOGRESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  SLOW?  115 

greater  demonstration  of  power  in  the  conversion  of 
men?  Gifts  as  great  and  varied, — better  endowed 
and  symmetrized,  are  as  abundant  as  they  have  been 
in  any  period  of  the  Christian  era,  and  the  Spirit  of 
God  has  the  same  potency.  The  general  reply, — that 
its  recipients  and  its  advocates  are  not  as  sincere, 
earnest  and  self -forgetting,  is  doubtless  quite  true. 
But  this  does  not  account  altogether  for  the  deficiency 
in  blessed  results.  True,  also,  there  have  been  mar- 
vellous effusions  of  the  Spirit  in  the  conversion  of 
multitudes  at  periods  since.  But,  Christianity  has 
not  been  able  to  maintain  its  ratio  of  genuinely  trans- 
formed persons  to  the  populations,  even  in  Christen- 
dom, much  less  in  heathenized  lands. 

Some  scholarly  and  Christian  thinkers  attribute  the 
comparatively  meagre  results  of  the  regular  and 
special  efforts,  to  bring  the  mass  of  active,  thoughtful 
and  cultivated  persons  in  all  professions,  into  the 
Kingdom,  to  the  inability  of  the  ministry  to  meet  and 
satisfy  their  necessities  and  desires, — intellectual  and 
spiritual;  and  especially  to  cope  with  technical  scien» 
tists  and  philosophers,  who  assume  to  lead  mankind 
in  discovery,  research  and  thought, — not  merely  from 
the  lack  of  adequate  mental  calibre,  but  by  the  want 
of  adequate  equipment,  philosophic  and  scientific; 
that  the  tide  of  worldliness  and  skepticism,  in  which 
society,  and  to  some  extent,  the  Christian  churches 
are  drifting,  can  only  be  stayed  by  the  interception 
and  display  of  more  logic  and  more  erudition  from 
the  Pulpit.  Leviathan  cannot  be  thus  tamed.  The 
energies  of  the  ministry,  it  is  believed,  would  be  mis- 
applied, if  not  frittered  in  such  endeavor.    All  such 


116  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

attainments  are  unquestionably  desirable  and  condu- 
cive to  efficiency  with  certain  classes,  but  very  few, 
relatively,  out  of  the  masses.  Logic,  scientific  or 
ethical  culture  can  never  reconstruct,  regenerate 
souls.  The  gifts  of  the  great  Apostle,  enriched  with 
all  the  cultui-e  of  this  or  any  age,  could  not  succeed 
in  spiritually  reconstructing  skeptics  and  agnostics — 
as  they  did  not  in  Athens  and  Eome.  The  Spirit 
working  through  them  could;  but  alas!  Science, — 
falsely  so-termed,  atheistic  in  its  exegesis  of  the 
Scripture  of  God — engraven  on  the  material,  or  inter- 
woven in  the  immaterial  Universe,  interposes  itself 
as  barrier  to  the  gracious  entrance  into  the  soul  of 
the  true  light.  Let  one  angular  bastion  of  speculative 
unbelief  be  carried  by  the  Christian  assailant,  and 
another  is  soon  thrust  out 

F.  W.  Newman,  in  his  book,  "The  Soul;  Its  Sor- 
rows and  Its  Aspirations,"  has  some  thoughtful  utter- 
ances on  this  subject,  first  published  some  30  years 
since,  the  introduction  of  which,  on  account  of  their 
truthfulness  and  pertinency,  with  some  elimination 
and  condensation,  cannot  be  forborne.  True,  the  sit- 
uation has  changed  much  for  the  better  since  he 
wrote.     But  it  is  still  appalling. 

"Over  the  old  regions  of  India  and  Arabia,  Chris- 
tianity has  evidently  but  little  power;  and  what  is 
most  startling  of  all,  its  prospects  in  Europe  itself 
are  externally  darker  than  ever.  In  Spain,  Italy, 
France  and  Germany,  it  is  hard  to  say,  that  much 
belief  of  formal  Christianity  remains  among  the  more 
educated  part  of  the  community,  or  to  guess  how  deep 
a  gross  and  fearful  unbelief  has  penetrated  among 


WHAT  IS  GROUND  FOR  CERTITUDE.       117 

the  lowest  population  of  the  towns.  As  for  England 
and  Scotland,  it  is  notorious,  that  a  horrid  heathenism 
has  taken  firm  root  in  our  town  population  also,  that 
millions  have  cast  off  all  reverence  for  any  of  the 
claims  of  authoritative  religion. 

"All  Christian  apostles  and  missionaries,  like  the 
Hebrew  prophets,  have  always  refuted  Paganism  by 
direct  attacks  on  its  immoral  and  unspiritual  doc- 
trines; and  have  appealed  to  the  consciences  of 
heathens  as  competent  to  decide  in  the  controversy. 
.  .  .  External  teaching  may  be  a  training  of  our 
moral  and  spiritual  senses,  but  affords  no  ground  for 
certitude.  Our  certainty  in  divine  truth  cannot  be 
more  certain,  than  the  veracity  of  our  inward  organs 
of  discernment.^  .  .  .  The  demands  made  on  men's 
faith  are  indeed  far  greater  than  ever  the  Apostles 
made;  for  the  Apostles  did  not  take  a  Bible  in  their 
hands,  and  say  to  the  heathen :  *  Here  is  an  infallible 
Book:  to  believe,  that  every  word  of  this  is  dictated 
by  God,  is  the  beginning  of  Christianity;  receive 
this,  and  you  shall  be  saved.'  -.  .  ,  The  war  is 
carried  away  from  the  region  of  the  conscience  and  of 
the  soul,  into  that  of  verbal  and  other  criticism;  and 
who  can  expect  spiritual  conversion  from  that?  .  . 
To  recognize  the  authority  and  headship  of  Jesus  as 
Messiah  was  all  that  they  expected  of  a  convert.  . 
.  .  Paul  felt  himself  to  be  entirely  independent  of 
external  evidence,  when  he  preached  for  three  years 
without  caring  to  meet  the  Apostles,  whose  senses 
could  give  the  best  external  witness  to  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus.     .     .     .     He  .many  years  after  .delib- 

I.     See  "  Light  of  Life,"  pages  225-226. 


118  THF  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

erately  boasted,  that  Lis  gospel  and  his  apostleship 
came  direct  from  God.  .  .  .  The  soul  is  often  as 
active  and  susceptible  in  the  poorest  and  most  illiter- 
ate, as  in  the  wise  and  great.  .  .  .  Concerning 
our  modern  Evidences,  the  poor  and  the  illiterate 
cannot  possibly  judge,  and  the  preacher  cannot  preach 
unless  he  is  learned:  so  entirely  has  the  Gospel 
shifted  away  from  its  primitive  basis. 

"A  minister  in  modern  days  is  expected  to  excel 
others  in  what  are  called  Theological  accomplish- 
ments. Theology,  one  might  have  thought,  was  the 
science  of  God;  but  no:  it  is  the  science  of  Biblical 
Interpretation  and  Historical  Criticism.  A  person 
eminent  in  these  becomes  a  Doctor  of  Divinity.  And 
yet,  there  are  topics  in  which  a  man  might  obtain 
high  ecclesiastical  renown,  though  his  conscience  were 
seared  and  his  soul  utterly  paralyzed;  .  .  .  the 
knowledge  is  simply  secular.  .  .  .  Christianity 
has  been  turned  into  a  literature,  and,  therefore,  her 
teachers  necessarily  become  a  literary  profession. 
...  In  the  individual,  as  in  human  history,  reli- 
gion must  be  a  life,  long  before  it  can  approximate  to 
the  character  of  a  science;  and  a  knowledge  of  human 
nature  in  general  seems  to  be  far  more  valuable  to  a 
religious  teacher,  than  any  special  set  of  facts.  In- 
deed, much  that  is  currently  called  Theology,  appears 
to  me,  suited  only  to  bring  barrenness,  degeneracy 
and  contempt  upon  religion. 

"It  is  absolutely  impossible,  to  recover  the  tens  of 
thousands  who  have  learned  to  scorn  Christian  faith, 
by  arguments  of  erudition  and  criticism.  Unless  the 
appeal  can  be  made  directly  to  the  conscience  and  the 


RELIGION  MUST  BE  SPIRITUAL.  119 

sou],  faith  in  Christianity,  once  lost  by  the  vulgar,  is 
lost  forever. 

"If  we  continue  to  do  as  we  are  doing,  .  .  the 
present  course  of  affairs  must  go  steadily  forward, 
but  with  accelerated  velocity;  in  proportion  to  the 
increase  of  mental  sharpness,  a  spiritual  destitution, 
a  real  black  infidelity  will  spread  among  the  millions. 
.  .  .  Why  should  men  load  themselves  with  the 
unendurable  burden  called  Christian  Evidences? — a 
mass  of  investigation,  which  if  it  is  to  be  calmly, 
thoroughly  judged,  requires  some  ten  years'  persever- 
ing study  from  a  cultivated  intellect  in  its  prime.  . 
.  .  Religion  can  never  resume  her  pristine  vigor, 
until  she  becomes  purely  spiritual,  and  as  in  apos- 
tolic days  ^appeals  only  to  the  soul;  and  the  real 
problem  for  all  who  wish  to  save  cultivated  Europe 
from  Pantheism,  selfishness  and  sensuality,  .  .  . 
is  to  extract  and  preserve  the  heavenly  spirit  of 
Christianity,  while  neglecting  its  earthly  husL     .     . 

"  The  Kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and  di'ink,  nor 
sermons  and  Sabbaths,  nor  history  and  exegesis,  nor 
a  belief  in  the  infallibility  of  any  book,  nor  in  the 
supernatural  memory  of  any  man;  but  it  is,  as  Paul 
says,  *  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
Spirit:  " 

How  can  a  large  multitude  of  absentees  from  Di- 
vine service  in  cities  be  induced  to  regularly  attend 
upon  it  in  the  Protestant  houses  for  such  purpose,  is 
a  question  that  is  now  occupying  the  thought  of  active 
believers. 

First,  it  might  be  said,  that  many  are  so  wearied  in 


120  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

body  and  soul  on  Saturday  night,  by  their  six  days' 
toil,  and  by  the  burdens  of  necessity  and  sorrow  they 
have  staggered  under  for  the  week,  they  are  physi- 
cally unable,  and  spiritually  indisposed  to  leave  their 
homes  for  such  purpose.  They  need  rest,  and  must 
have  it,  ere  they  take  up  the  wearisome,  sometimes 
sorrowful  march  again.  They  have  their  Bibles,  and 
they  can  have  uninterrupted  communion  with  their 
God,  if  they  are  so  inclined,  or  are  driven  to  seek  for 
it  in  the  quiet  of  their  own  closets.  To  them,  their 
own  homes,  under  such  circumstances,  are  the  best 
temples  for  Di\dne  service. 

"When  reproached  with  not  going  to  meeting, 
Garrison  remarked,  that  lie  sometimes  preached  io 
himself.  .  .  .  Olmsted,  of  the  Sanitary  Commis- 
sion, when  asked  why  he  absented  himself  from 
church,  replied:  ^Because  going  io  meeting  hurts  my 
religious  feelings'  "  * 

Some  of  the  skandala  in  the  way  are  found  in  the 
indifferent  practice  of  the  church  members  them- 
selves,— the  worldliness,  if  not  the  ungodliness,  of 
many  of  their  number.  They  as  well  as  worldlings, 
are  tested  by  the  fruits  they  bear.  Keligious  sensi- 
bilities are  disturbed  in  a  House  where  all  are  on  a 
common  level  before  God,  by  the  sight  of  some  occu- 
pying chief  seats,  whose  lives,  in  public  or  private, 
do  not  comport  well  with  their  professions.  The 
mothers,  wives,  sisters  and  daughters  of  the  poverty- 
stricken,  in  their  comparatively  shabby  habiliments, 
are  not  comforted  on  their  entrance  by  the  sight 
and  sound  of  rustling  silks,  and  the  flutter  of  gorgeous 

I.     Lectures  at  Concord. 


BAEKIEES  TO  THE  RECEPTION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  121 

feathers  and  ribbons  npon  the  persons  of  the  sister- 
hood, who  evidence  by  such  attire,  that  they  are  first 
the  votaries  of  fashion  ,  before  they  are  devotees  to 
God.  Such  emotions,  it  may  be  said,  evince  pride, 
envy,  lack  of  self-respect  which  should  be  overcome. 
Perhaps  such  is  the  fact.  Doubtless  they  should  be 
suppressed.  The  children  of  God  should  rise  to  such 
sublimities  as  Paul  attained,  when  he  declared  it 
was  a  very  small  thing,  that  he  should  be  judged 
of  man's  judgment.  All  believers  have  not  such 
strength  of  faith.  Seek  the  experience,  friend.  Ex- 
change positions  with  thy  brother  or  sister.  The 
point  is,  whether  such  facts  are  not  skandala  that 
should  be  removed,  and  whether  .if  not  removed,  they 
do  not  become  barriers,  not  only  to  the  church-going 
of  the  classes  specified,  but  to  their  cordial  reception 
of  the  Truth  presented,  and  of  the  hallowed  influences 
pervading  Divine  worship,  when  they  do  attend. 
Then  again  the  form  of  public  service  may  be  too 
inflexible  to  be  attractive, — therefore  not  fully  profit- 
able to  the  persons  specified;  oi  the  official  ministra- 
tion in  preaching,  prayer  or  praise,  may  not  be  adapt- 
ed to,  or  adequate  for  the  purpose.  First-class  pulpit 
talent  is  exceedingly  rare,  even  when  it  is  conjoined 
with  culture  and  the  giaces  of  Christianity.  The 
greatest  task  ever  laid  upon  the  intellect  is  each 
week  to  bring  forth  from  the  treasury  of  Grace, 
"things  new  and  old,"  for  the  quickening  and  edifi- 
cation of  needy,  hungry  souls.  There  may  be  too 
much  formal,  systematic  preaching  in  these  en- 
lightened, stirring  days, — not  enough  of  spontaneous, 
but  previously  well  digested  and  adapted  discourse. 


122  THE   CHRIST   IN    LIFE. 

And  the  various  gifts  and  graces  of  the  churches 
should  be  summoned  to  public  use,  even  in  the  pul- 
pit, for  the  spiritual  profit  of  the  largest  number. 

Moody's  individual  mission,  and  his  mission  plans, 
will  reach  a  large  multitude  of  non-church-goers 
among  the  middle  and  lower  classes, — the  vicious, 
the  abandoned,  the  poor,  the  homeless,  the  unthink- 
ing, the  uncultured,  the  roving,  the  unsettled,  those 
without  families,  in  the  great  cities  and  towns  of 
English-speaking  Christendom.  This  is  one  of  the 
grandest  special  enterprises  undertaken  since  the 
days  of  the  Apostles.  In  no  age  of  the  world  .has  it 
been  so  effectually  and  abundantly  demonstrated,  that 
the  Gospel  can  take  the  most  vicious  and  degraded, 
and  lift  them  up  to  the  Christian  level.  The  cures 
wrought  in  bodies  as  well  souls  have  been  wonderful, 
miracles  of  Grace.  Many  of  the  rescued  have  be- 
come very  earnest  and  effective  laborers,  in  Gospel 
service. 

In  his  annual  conferences  at  Northfield,  Mass.,  he 
stimulates  evangelists  and  students  for  the  ministiy — 
to  a  closer  familiarity  with  the  English  Bible,  and  to 
greater  zeal  in  revival  work.  He  has  also  laid  the 
foundation  for  the  educcition  of  devoted  young  men 
and  women  to  Gospel  service  hereafter.  He  is  un- 
dertaking to  organize  corps  of  laborers  in  our  large 
cities,  and  to  establish  training  schools  for  such  com- 
prehensive purpose.. 

Few  have  been  able  to  so  simplify  the  Gospel,  by 
statement,  illustration  and  manner  of  presentation, — 
so  comminute  it,  and  thus  bring  it  to  the  apprehen- 
sion of  the  feeblest  and  the  least  cultured  mind,  as 


SINGING   THE   GOSPEL.  123 

Mr.  Moody.  His  sincerity,  directness,  intense  ear- 
nestness in  delivery,  absence  of  self-consciousness, 
complete  absorption  in  his  theme,  make  him  a  flame 
of  fire.  His  world-wide  acquaintance  with  the  classes 
specified,  in  all  conditions;  his  training  in  constant 
extemporaneous  speaking ;  his  wonderful  famil- 
iarity with,  and  command  of  the  old  English  version  of 
the  Scriptures;  his  profound  Christian  experience, 
have  furnished  him  with  apparently  an  inexhaustible 
fund  of  materials  for  discourse. 

Though  not  possessing  gift  of  musical  expression 
himself;  under  his  auspices,  it  has  been  developed  ex- 
traordinarily in  the  children  of  God,  and  under  its 
inspiration  and  stimulus,  they  are  "Marching  On, 
Marching  On,"  to  the  possession  of  the  spiritual 
Canaan.  New  stars  have  appeared  on  the  musical 
firmament,  very  clear  and  sweet  in  their  shining, — 

Forever  singing,  as  thej  shine, — 
The  Hand  that  made  us  is  Divine. 

A  world,  not  small,  of  musical  literature  has  been 
created.  The  hymns  are  not  invariably  poetic  gems, 
nor  their  teaching  ever  Scriptural  and  sound.  But 
they  all  have  their  uses,  even  the  jangle  of  "Tangle- 
foot Alley." 

But  the  numbers  reached,  and  that  will  be  reached, 
through  these  various  instrumentalities,  are  and  will 
be,  but  a  small  portion  of  the  great  bulk  of  humanity, 
in  English-speaking  communities.  The  mass  will 
continue  to  be  preoccupied,  as  it  has  always  been, 
with  the  cares  of  the  world,  the  deceitfulness  of 
riches,  and  the  lust  of  other  things;  with  the  struggle 


124  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

for  material  existence  and  comfort,  even.  Most  of 
them  can't  or  wont  take  time  to  attend  such  services, 
much  less  to  give  them  due  thought.  Then  the  for- 
eign element  in  this  American  and  English  multitude 
cannot  be  reached  at  all.  If  reached,  it  must  be 
i  hrough  gifted  proficients  in  its  various  tongues. 

Evangelists  in  or  outside  of  churches  ,cannot  sat- 
isfy .  continuously  the  intellectual  necessities  and  de- 
mands of  the  thoughtful, — the  solid  portions  of  such 
communities.  They  have  their  limitations  as  have 
the  stated  ministry, — the  pastors  of  the  churches. 

The  prime  and  pressing  want  in  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States  for  evangelic  purposes,  is  not  so 
much,  more  meeting  houses,  and  a  larger  number  of 
the  unsaved  in  them  every  Lord's  Day, — though  such 
attendance  is  desirable  and  conducive  to  the  highest 
good  of  all  concerned;  but  consecrated  dwellings  of 
families,  where  the  occupants  will  daily  and  hourly 
serve  God,  through  the  Godliness  of  their  speech  and 
conduct.  If  realized  there,  it  probably  Avill  be  real- 
ized on  the  streets,  in  secular  vocations,  in  personal 
contact  with  individual  souls. 

There  are  comparatively  few  in  such  Christian 
communities,  in  whose  ears  the  Gospel  has  not  con- 
tinuously sounded  from  childhood. — 

They  have  been  sermonized  to  repletion  and  insen- 
sibility. The  Truth  may  lose  its  effectiveness  upon 
hearers  by  excessive  iteration,  and  become  the  savor 
of  death  unto  death  to  the  Gospel-hardened  thereby. 

"The  drunkards  of  Ephraim  mocked  Isaiah's  reit- 
erated warnings  and  expostulations,  by  comparing 
him  to  a  teacher  of  children,  with  his  everlasting 


DAILY  LABORERS  NEEDED.  125 

tsaV'la-tsav,  isav-la-tsav,  kav-la-kav,  kav-la-kav. 
Isaiah  xxviiiilO." 

The  Gospel  must  be  taken  to  men  and  women  indi- 
vidually, and  into  families. 

There  must  be  a  larger  number  of  every-day  Chris- 
tian laborers,  while  engaged  in  their  secular  vocations, 
— untitled  and  unordained,  save  through  faculty  sanc- 
tified by  Divine  Grace. 

God,  not  they  themselves,  must  call  them  to  any 
specific  work. 

They  must  prove  their  calling;  then  their  brethren 
and  hearers  will  approve  it,  and  thus  ordain  them. 

They  must  not  interview  any,  nor  enter  any  house 
for  religious  converse,  unless  divinely  moved  thereto, 
— testing  the  impulse  whether  it  be  from  God  or  self. 

God  will  do  His  work,  if  they  will  confine  them- 
selves to  theirs. 

For  reaching,  and  that  effectually  every  class, — 
every  intellectual,  emotional,  spiritual,  educational 
grade,— in  every  representative  condition  and  en- 
vironment, the  presentation  of  the  Gospel  must  be 
adapted  correspondingly.  The  Christ  is  the  only  safe 
model,  and  Paul  the  most  effective  disciple  in  evan- 
gelic work.  Both  recognized  every  diversity  of 
gift  and  culture  in  speech,  literature  and  action.  They 
had  a  word  of  recognition,  approval  and  commenda- 
tion for  the  humblest  and  most  unobtrusive,  as  well 
as  for  the  mightiest  and  the  self-reliant  in  Christian 
labor.  By  no  means  did  they  disparage  the  use  of 
reason  or  culture,  in  scrutiny  for  the  apprehension  of 
the  Truth, — Truth  literally  revealed,  latent  or  involved 
in  the  Scripture — God-breathed.  Scrutinize  the  Scrip- 


126  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

tures/  is  the  homily,  if  not  the  injunction.  Scrutiny, 
of  course,  involves  analytic  processes  and  conclusions 
of  the  critical  faculties.  I  Pet  lii :  15,  John  x :  37,  38, 
Acts  xxiv:25,  Acts  xvii*2,  John  v -39-4:7  Luke  xii:  57, 
Isaiah  i:18. 

Here  someone  may  exclaim:  ** Have  faith.  'Tis 
better  than  sight."  Blessed  are  those  who,  not  hav- 
ing seen,  have  believed.  John  xx :  29.  But  such  had 
spiritual  assurance  in  their  souls,  equivalent  to,  and 
more  convincing  than  outward  vision.  But  all  have 
not  such  faith  in  natural  constitution,  or  through 
gracious  endowment.  II  Thess.  iii:2.  They  must 
be  taken  to  conviction  through  the  forces  of  knowl- 
edge and  reason.  Then  they  will  ecstatically  exclaim : 
"My  Lord!  and  my  God!  "  Once  thoroughly  rooted 
and  grounded  in  the  Truth,  they  will  rarely  be 
wrenched  from  their  position.'^ 

The  souls  of  philosophers,  scientists,  and  the  mem- 
bers of  all  the  learned  professions,  though  they  are 
comparatively  a  small  number,  are  precious,  as  well 

1.  Reason  is,  indeed,  the  only  faculty  we  have  wherewith  to 
judge  concerning  anything,  even  religion  itself. — Bishop  Butler. 

2.  Emerson  declared,  that  "  the  religion  which  is  to  guide 

»  .  the  present  and  coming  ages,  whatever  else  it  be,  must  be 
intellectual.  The  scientific  mind  must  have  a  faith  which  is 
science.  .  .  .  There  will  be  a  new  church,  founded  on  moral 
science,  at  lirst,  cold  and  naked,  a  babe  in  a  manger  again,  the  al- 
gebra and  mathematics  of  ethical  law,  the  church  of  men  to  come ; 
.  .  .  it  will  have  heaven  and  earth  for  its  beams  and  rafters ; 
science  for  symbol  and  illustration." — Alemoirs  by  Holmes. 

Doubtless,  the  manifestation  of  Christianity  in  the  future  will 
swing  much  in  the  direction  Emerson  indicates,  as  the  race  be- 
comes more  enlightened,  and  is  swayed  more  by  the  higher  ele- 


THE  GOSPEL  FOR  ALL  CLASSES.  127 

as  those  of  the  vicious  and  depraved,  God's  poor  and 
the  Devil's  poor  and  rich.  They  need  the  Gospel, 
and  it  must  be  preached  to  them  after  the  manner  of 
Paul  at  Athens. 

There  are  very  many  who  cannot  be  pressed  into 
the  Kingdom  through  their  emotions  exclusively,  or 
by  blind  acceptance  of  Scripture  isolated  from  its 
relations, — who  cannot  take  everything  averred  in 
the  English  version  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
on  trust,  without  intelligent  and  lawful  scrutiny; — 
whether  they  are  veritably  the  words  of  God  orally 
uttered,  or  communicated  to  others  through  His 
Spirit;  or  whether  there  has  not  been  some  human 
interpolation,  some  corruption  in  the  text, — inevitable 
through  transcription,  translation  or  transmission,  for 
so  many  centuries;  whether  or  not  there  is  a  human 
as  well  as  a  divine  element  in  them;  whether  some 
portions  are  not  purely  historical, — exposed  to  errors 
in  facts  and  figures  as  are  ordinary  histories;  and 
whether  they  are  not,  likewise,  to  be  subjected,  as  to 
authenticity  and  accuracy,  to  the  same  tests;  whether 
some  injunctions  are  intended  chiefly,  if  not  alto- 
gether, for  local  application,  and  not  for  universal; 
whether  truth,  thought,  emotion  crystallized  through 
the  medium  of  the  Imagination  should  not  be  inter- 
preted as  symbols,  and  not  as  literal  statements,  etc. 

If  the  millions  will  be  reached  individually  by  the 

ments  of  being.  But  it  will  never  cease  to  be  dominantly  the 
heart  religion.  The  earth  is  strewed  with  the  wrecks  of  purely 
intellectual  religion.  "  With  the  heart  man  believeth  unto  right- 
eousness." The  heart  and  intellect  are  in  inseparable  junction  in 
ihe  act  of  Christian  faith. 


128  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

Gospel,  they  will  be,  not  through  a  few  culled  laborers 
from  the  body  of  believers,  but  through  a  host,  who 
taking  life  and  health  in  liajid,  will  go  "  discipling  all 
the  nations,"  as  their  Master  enjoined;— as  mailed 
legions  have  gone  re})eatedly  to  military  conquest  at 
the  summons  of  their  Chief; — or  even  as  enterprising 
men,  singly  or  corporately,  have  gone  to  grasp  the 
treasures  of  earth. 

For  world-wide  evangelization,  there  must  be  as 
various  human  instrumentalities  as  are  the  classes  of 
mind,  culture,  social  position,  and  professional  vocation. 

But  when  one  considers  the  terrific  enginery  of  the 
world,  the  flesh  and  the  Devil; — the  barricades  of  in- 
terest, secular  absorption,  passion,  ignorance  and 
degradation, — behind  which  souls  are  entrenched  from 
effectual  approach  and  contact;  the  mesh  of  inequal- 
ity, injustice  and  corruption,  in  which  Society  and  the 
State,  even  in  European  Christendom,  are  interwoven, 
and  from  which,  to  human  sight,  they  cannot  be  dis- 
entangled without  disintegration;  the  prospect  is  de- 
spairful. "Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?"  God 
alone.  If  He  providentially  does  not  revolutionize 
and  reconstruct,  anarchy  must  sooner  or  later  ensue 
in  the  other  hemisphere, — when  crushed  peoples  come 
to  apprehension  of  their  rights,  and  knowing  them, 
dare  maintain.  There  will  be  uprisings,  not  exodi  of 
outraged  masses  who  will  take  their  enfranchisement 
into  their  own  hands.  They  will  cling  to  Home 
Land,  and  not  become  voluntary  or  involuntary  exiles. 
Woe  to  those  governments  or  classes  who  undertake 
to  throttle  their  resurrection!  There  may  be  wading 
in  blood  to  the  horses'  bridles,  as  reads  the  Apoca- 


CHRISTIAN  DUTIES  AND  RESPONSIBILITIES.         129 

lyptic  vision.    Earth  will  then  become  again  Aceldama, 

unless  the  Almighty  intervenes  through  some  Cosmic 

catastrophe,  as  once  before. 

Duties  and  responsibilities  of  Christian  believers, 

in  such  solemn  relations  are  unmistakably  plain.     • 
They  cannot  be  excusably  shunned. — 
What  light  there  is  in  them  must  so  shine  before 

men  that  they  may  see  their  good  works,  and  glorify 

their  Father  Who  is  in  Heaven. — 

They  must  not  merely  "say,''  but  "do." — 
They  must  be  known  by  their  good  "fruits.'' — 
Their  creed  must  be  translated  into  their  lives. — 
Then,  perhaps,  the   aspiration  may  be  hopefully 

cherished,  that — 

Jesus  shall  reign  where'er  the  sun 
Doth  his  successive  journeys  run ; 
His  Kingdom  stretch  from  shore  to  shore, 
'Till  moons  shall  wax  and  wane  no  more. 


ILLUSTRATIVE  AND  SUGGESTIVE. 


Next  to  the  originator  of  a  good  sentence  is  the  first  quoter  of  it. — Emerson. 


The  heretics  in  civilization,  not  to  speak  of  theology,  have  done 
most  for  the  world. 

To  the  young  man,  He  made  the  gate-way  very  strait  on  the 
side  of  property ,  to  a  certain  lawyer  .He  made  it  strait  on  the  side 
of  the  two  great  commandments ;  and  when  Nicodemus  came  to 
Him,  He  made  it  almost  impassably  strait  by  saying:  "  Except  a 
man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  Kingdom  of  God." — Ecce 
Deus. 

And  the  multitudes  asked  him,  saying,  What  then  must  we  do.? 
And  he  answered  and  said  unto  them,  He  that  hath  two  coats,  let 
him  impart  to  him  that  hath  none ;  and  he  that  hath  food,  let  him 
do  likewise.  And  there  came  also  publicans  to  be  baptized,  and 
they  said  unto  him,  Master,  what  must  we  do.?  And  he  said  unto 
them,  Extort  no  more  than  that  which  is  appointed  you.  And 
soldiers  also  asked  him,  saying,  And  we,  what  must  we  do.?  And 
he  said  unto  them,  Do  violence  to  no  man,  neither  exact  anything 
wrongfully ;  and  be  content  with  your  wages. — Luke  Hi:  io-j^. 

Some  one  asked  Dr  Wayland,  if  he  thought  a  certain  heretic 
like  the  speaker  was  a  Christian.  The  doctor  replied,  "Can  he 
cast  out  devils.?  That  was  all  the  people  cared  for,  because  it 
was  the  true  test  of  Christianity.  Creeds  were  of  little  account 
when  men  were  doing  good  and  casting  out  devils." 

If  a  man  will  do,  before  he  gets  religion,  like  he  thinks  he  would 
do  after  he  gets  it,  he  will  get  \\..—Sain.  P.  Jo7ies. 

In  Him,  human  nature  had  laid  aside  all  its  ferocity,  all  its  pride, 
its  unforgiving  malice,  its  violence,  its  selfishness,  its  sensuality, 

(130) 


THE  CREED  IN  THE  DEED.  131 

its  discontent,  and  appeared  all  tenderness,  humility,  forbearance, 
liberality,  patience  and  self-denial. — Dr.  Channing. 

The  considerateness  of  Christ  was  shown  in  little  things.  And 
such  are  the  parts  of  human  life.  Opportunities  for  doing  greatly 
seldom  occur; — life  is  made  up  of  infinitesimals.  If  you  compute 
the  sum  of  happiness  in  any  given  day,  you  will  find  that  it  was 
composed  of  small  attentions, — kind  looks,  which  made  the  heart 
swell,  and  stirred  into  health  that  sour,  rancid  film  of  misanthropy, 
which  is  apt  to  coagulate  on  the  stream  of  our  inward  life,  as  surely 
as  we  live  in  heart  apart  from  our  fellow  creatures-  .  .  .  What 
was  the  secret  of  such  an  one's  power.?     What  had  she  done.? 

A  lady  told  me  the  delight,  the  tears  of  gratitude,  which  she 
had  witnessed  in  a  poor  girl  to  whom,  in  passing,  I  gave  a  kind 
look  on  going  out  of  church  on  Sunday.  What  a  lesson!  How 
cheaply  happiness  can  be  given!  What  opportunities  we  miss  of 
doing  an  angel's  work !  1  remember  doing  it,  full  of  sad  feelings, 
passing  on,  and  thinking  no  more  about  it ,  and  it  gave  an  hour's 
sunshine  to  a  human  life,  and  lightened  the  load  of  life  to  a  human 
heart,  for  a  time!  .  .  .  Love  descends,  not  ascends. — F.  W. 
Robertson. 

Lowliness  is  greatness,  genuine  goodness  is  greatness,  child-like 
obedience  to  God  is  greatness.  True  dignity  is  a  lowly  and  guile- 
less state  of  soul. —  The  Christ  of  History. 

There  are  people  with  strong  religious  feelings,  who  are  not 
made  better  by  them ;  who  at  church  or  in  other  meetings  are  moved 
perhaps  to  tears,  but  who  make  no  progress  in  self-government  or 
charity,  and  who  gain  nothing  of  elevation  of  mind  in  their  com- 
mon feelings  and  transactions.  They  take  pleasure  in  religious 
excitement,  just  as  others  delight  to  be  interested  by  a  fiction  or  a 
play.  They  invite  these  emotions  because  they  suppose  them  to 
aid  or  ensure  salvation,  and  soon  relapse  into  their  ordinary  sor- 
didness  or  other  besetting  infirmities.     .     .     . 

The  great  characteristic  of  true  religion  is,  not  feeling,  but  the 
subjection  of  our  wills,  desires,  habits,  lives,  to  the  will  of  God, 
from  a  conviction  that  what  He  wills  is  the  perfection  of  virtue, 
and  the  true  happiness  of  our  nature. — Dr.  Chayniing. 

Devotional  feelings  are  very  distinct  from  uprightness  and  pu- 
rity of  life; — they  are  often  singularly  allied  to  the  animal  nature. 


132  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

the  result  of  a  warm  temperament, — guides  to  hell  under  the  form 
of  angels  of  light,  conducting  the  unconscious  victim  of  feelings 
that  appear  divine  and  scraiihic,  into  a  state  of  heart  and  life  at 
which  the  very  world  stands  aghast.  .  .  .  Our  basest  feelings 
lie  very  near  to  our  highest; — they  pass  into  one  another  by  insen- 
sible transitions. 

No  man  becomes  honest  till  he  has  got  face  to  face  with  God. 
There  is  a  certain  insincerity  about  us  all — a  something  dramatic. 
One  of  those  dreadful  moments  which  throws  us  upon  ourselves, 
and  strips  off  the  hollowness  of  our  outside  show,  must  come  be- 
fore the  insincere  is  true. 

The  soul  collects  its  mightiest  forces  by  being  thrown  in  upon 
itself,  and  coerced  solitude  often  matures  the  mental  and  moral 
character  marvellously,  as  in  Luther's  confinement  in  the  Wart- 
burg;  or  to  take  a  loftier  example,  Paul  during  his  three  years  in 
Arabia;  grander  still, — His  solitude  in  the  desert:  the  Baptist's,  too. 
—F.  W.  Rohertso7i. 

Let  him,  therefore,  live  much  by  himself,  that  he  may  learn  to 
stand  firm  among  his  tellow-men ;  let  him  dwell  habitually  in  the 
region  of  everlasting  truth,  that  he  may  not  be  the  sport  of  the 
caprices  of  the  day. — Dr.  Channing, 

There  is  much  to  be  said  by  the  hermit  or  monk  in  defense  of 
his  life  of  thought  and  prayer  ,  .  .  Act,  if  you  like,  but  you 
do  it  at  yovir  peril.  .  .  .  The  fiery  reformer  embodies  his  aspi- 
rations in  some  rite  or  covenant,  and  he  and  his  friends  cleave  to 
the  form,  and  lose  the  aspiration. — Etnerson. — Goethe. 

By  the  Pythagorean  method  of  education,  the  pupil  was  con- 
demned to  silence  for  five  years.  Hegel  says  that,  "  in  a  sense, 
this  duty  of  silence  is  the  essential  condition  of  all  culture  and 
learning  " — E.  R.  Caird^  LL.  D. 

He  who  himself  and  God  would  know. 
Into  the  silence  let  him  go. 
And,  lifting  off  pall  after  pall, 
Reach  to  the  innermost  depth  of  all. 

— Martineau. 

<*  Mine  hour  is  not  yet  come  "  .     .     He  could  bide  His  time. 

He  had  the  strength  to  wait,     c     .  In  all  the  works  of  God 


THE  CBEED  IN  THE  DEED.  133 

there  is  a  conspicuous  absence  of  haste  and  hurry.  All  that  He 
does  ripens  slowly.  Six  slow  days  and  nights  of  creative  force 
before  man  is  made ;  two  thousand  years  to  discipline  and  form  a 
Jewish  people;  four  thousand  years  of  darkness,  ignorance 
and  crime,  before  the  fullness  o£  the  Time  had  come,  when  He 
could  send  forth  His  Son.  .  .  .  Whatever  contradicts  this  Di- 
vine plan  must  pay  the  price  of  haste — brief  duration.  All  that  is 
done  before  the  hour  is  come  decays  fast.  ..."  He  that  be- 
lieveth  shall  not  make  haste." — F   W.  Robertson. 

God  goes  fast  enough.  He  will  not  let  you  go  any  faster  than 
He  goes.  And  who  are  you,  that  cry  because  you  cannot  run 
before  God.?  Be  sure  that  you  keep  up  with  Plim;  be  sure  that 
when  He  takes  a  step,  you  step  too,  and  step  lively. — H.  W, 
Beecher. 

Men  are  impatient,  and  for  precipitating  things :  but  the  Author 
of  Nature  appears  deliberate  throughout  His  operations;  accom- 
plishing His  natural  ends  by  slow,  successive  steps. — Butler^s 
Analogy. 

Rapidity  of  movement  was  no  part  of  the  providential  design. 
Like  the  seed  to  which  Christ  Himself  compares  the  Gospel,  all 
the  early  stages  of  its  life  were  to  be  silent  and  to  be  slow.  Grad- 
ually to  lay  a  broad  basis  of  such  evidence — as  ought  through  all 
time  to  satisfy  the  reason  and  the  heart  of  mankind,  seems  to  have 
been  the  object  which  our  Savior  wrought. — Gladstone  on  Ecce 
Homo. 

No  changing  of  place,  at  a  hundred  miles  an  hour,  nor  making 
of  stuffs  a  thousand  yards  a  minute,  will  make  us  one  whit  strong- 
er, happier  or  wiser.  There  was  always  more  in  the  world  than 
men  could  see,  walked  they  ever  so  slowly ;  they  will  see  it  no 
better  for  going  fast.  And  they  will,  at  last,  and  soon  too,  find 
out  that  their  grand  inventions  for  conquering  (as  they  think) 
space  and  time,  do,  in  reality,  conquer  nothing.  A  fool  always 
wants  to  shorten  space  and  time .  a  wise  man  wants  to  lengthen 
both.  A  fool  wants  to  kill  space  and  time:  a  wise  man,  first,  to 
gain  them,  then  to  animate  them.  Your  railroad,  when  you 
come  to  understand  it,  is  only  a  device  for  making  the  world 
smaller.  .  .  ,  The  really  precious  things  are  thought  and 
sight,  not  pace.     It  does  a  bullet  no  good  to  go  fast ;  and  a  man, 


134  THE   CHIUST   IN    LIFE. 

no  harm  to  go  slow;  for  his  glory  is  not  all  in  going,  but  in  being. 
.  .  .  ■  I  believe  if  we  had  really  wanted  to  communicate  reli- 
gion, we  could  have  done  it  in  less  than  i, 800  years,  without 
steam.  Most  of  the  good  in  religious  communication,  that  I  remem- 
ber, has  been  done  on  foot;  and,  it  cannot  be  easily  done  faster 
than  at  foot-pace. — JRuskin. — Morals  and  Religion. 

He  revered  the  family  institution ,  he  regarded  the  parents  as 
priests  in  their  households,  and  he  anticipated  evil  from  any  thing 
which  dispensed  with  this  priestly  office.  He  believed  that 
the  members  of  a  family  should  live  at  home.  He  disliked  the 
practice  of  living  out  of  doors,  of  having  all  things  common,  and 
of  giving  publicity  to  all  religious  action.  Home  devotions,  home 
teachings,  home  duties  of  all  kinds,  he  exalted  to  the  highest 
place.     .     .    . 

"  There  are  no  conversions,  after  the  hour  is  out." — Dr,  Em- 
mons.— Park, 

If  there  is  one  thing  that  should  be  more  imperative  than  an- 
other, it  is  that  your  children  shall  be  at  home  at  night;  or  that,  if 
they  are  abroad,  you  shall  be  abroad  with  them-  .  .  .  Keep 
your  children  at  home  nights.  .  .  .  Take  care  of  your  chil- 
dren at  night. — H.  W.  Beecher, 

Pecuniary  contributions  to  the  cause  of  Christ  flow,  to  great  ex- 
tent, from  something  else  than  religious  principle  ...  A 
very  intricate  complication  of  motives  does  overlay,  if  it  does  not 
displace  Christian  simplicity,  in  the  contributions  of  the  treasures 
of  the  church  to  the  support  of  the  Gospel.  Besides,  in  merely  im- 
pulsive benevolence,  we  have  too  much  reason  to  suspect  the  play 
of  secondary,  even  of  frivolous,  and  often  of  positively  sinful  mo- 
tives,— in  the  outlay  of  pecuniary  resources  for  this  object.  The 
pecuniary  sacrifices  of  the  church  are,  probably,  the  least  valuable 
index  of  its  Christian  character. 

Missionary  treasuries  may  be  filled  as  with  the  profusion  of  old 
chivalry.  Benevolent  societies  may  be  as  the  stars  in  number, 
and  popular  enthusiasm  may  mount  to  ecstacy  at  the  appeals  from 
our  platforms  Denominations  may  marshal  their  strength  in 
vieing  with  each  other  for  the  endowment  of  church  extension.  . 
.    ,    Yet,  let  "the  manliness  of  the  Pulpit"  be  "emasculated," 


THE  CREED  IN  THE  DEED.  135 

and  all  this  show  oi  Christian  energy  soon  becomes  but  a  tawdry 
parade.  .  ,  .  In  God's  sight,  it  becomes  detestable.  An  old 
Roman  Triumph  had  a  far  more  manly  significance. 

Is  it  not  true,  that  denominational  growth  may,  after  all,  be  de- 
lusive.'* May  not  church  extension  become  but  a  noble  name  for 
ecclesiastical  pillage.''  Is  it  not  possible,  that  we  may  be  found  to 
have  been  of  those  who  preach  Christ  of  envy  and  of  strife.'*  .  . 
Christians  are  an  immense  assemblage  of  undeveloped  resources. 
— Austin  Phelps  in  Bib.  Sacra,  Jnly,  1^54-' 

Any  attempt  to  promote  a  benevolent  object  by  an  appeal  to 
selfish  motives,  is  wrong.  Benevolent  giving  is  a  means  of  Chris- 
tian culture,  but  selfish  giving  in  the  form  of  benevolence,  is  a 
deception  and  a  snare.  If  the  cause  of  benevolence  cannot  be 
supported  benevolently,  it  had  better  not  be  supported  at  all.  Any 
other  mode  of  supporting  it  will  dry  up  the  fountain. — Mark  Hop- 
kins.— Larv  of  Love 

The  rich  man  who  goes  to  his  poor  brother's  cottage,  and,  with- 
out affectation  of  humility,  naturally,  and  with  the  respect  which 
man  owes  to  man,  enters  into  his  circumstances,  inquiring  about 
his  distresses,  and  hears  his  homely  tale,  has  done  more  to  estab- 
lish an  interchange  of  kindly  feeling,  than  he  could  have  secured 
by  the  costliest  present,  by  itself.  .     .     Public  donations  have 

their  value  and  their  uses,  .  .  but  in  the  point  of  eliciting  grat- 
itude, all  these  fail. — F-  W  Robertson. 

The  child  that  is  nursed  on  church  grab-bags,  fish-ponds,  guess- 
cakes  and  wheels  of  fortune,  with  all  the  other  nameless  appliances 
of  these  fairs  for  pious  purposes,  will  save  that  in  his  soul  which 
will  mature  into  a  greed  nothing  can  satisfy. —  Where  Is  The  City? 

We  can  do  most  good  by  individual  action,  and  our  own  virtue 
is  incomparably  more  improved  by  it.  It  is  vastly  better  that  we 
should  give  our  own  money  with  our  own  hands,  from  our  own 
judgment,  and  through  personal  interest  in  the  distresses  of  others, 
than  that  we  should  send  it  by  a  substitute.  Second-hand  charity 
is  not  as  good  to  the  giver  or  receiver,  as  immediate. — Dr. 
Channing. 

Men  should  be  their  own  almoners  .     God  meant  every 

man  to  be  charitable  as  much  as  to  be  prayerful  ^  and  He  never  in- 


13G  THE   CHTilST  JN  LIFE. 

tended  that  the  one  duty,  any  more  than  the  other,  should  be 
done  by  a  deputy. —  Way/a /id's  Afonil  Science. 

The  habit  of  receiving  pleasure  without  any  exertion  of  thought, 
by  the  mere  excitement  of  curiosity  and  sensibility,  may  be  justly 
ranked  among  the  worst  effects  of  habitual  novel  reading.  .     . 

Those  who  confine  their  reading  to  such  books,  dwarf  their  own 
faculties,  and  finally  reduce  their  understandings  to  a  deplorable 
imbecility . — Coleridge. —  The  Friend. 

These  books  enfeeble  the  intellect,  impoverish  the  imagination, 
vulgarize  taste  and  style,  give  false  or  distorted  views  of  life  and 
human  nature,  and,  what  is  worst  of  all,  waste  that  precious  time 
which  might  be  given  to  solid  mental  improvement  .  .  . 
tend  to  weaken  practical  benevolence,  and  rnay  end  in  quenching 
it  altogether. 

Sensibility  is  of  no  value,  except  as  it  is  under  the  direction  of 
judgment  and  reason ,  which  presupposes,  therefore,  the  harmon- 
ious culture  of  all  the  faculties  and  susceptibilities  of  our  nature 

Keep  a  sort  of  debtor  and  creditor  account  of  sentimental  indul- 
gence and  practical  benevolence.  I  do  not  care  if  your  pocket- 
book  contains  some  such  memoranda  as  these:  ''Foi  the  sweet 
tears  I  shed  over  the  romantic  sorrows  of  Charlotte  Devereux, 
sent  three  basins  of  gruel  and  a  flannel  petticoat  to  poor  old  Molly 
Brow^n."  "  For  sitting  up  three  hours  beyond  the  time  over  the 
'Bandits's  Bride,"  gave  half  a  crown  to  Betty  Smith,"  "My  sen- 
timental agonies  over  the  pages  of  the  '  Broken  Heart 'cost  me 
three  visits  to  the  Orpjian  Asylum,  and  two  extra  hours  of  Dorcas 
Society  work  " — The  Grey  son  Letters. 

Passive  impressions,  by  being  repeated,  grow  weaker;     .     .     . 

practical  habits  are  formed  and  strengthened  by  repeated  acts 

Bishop  Butler. 

There  is  such  a  heavenly  sweetness  in  divine  communion,  such 
true  and  perennial  happiness  and  joy  in  walking  with,  and  in  the 
light  of  God,  as  to  lift  the  mind,  by  a  natural  law,  entirely  above 
feeling  the  necessity  of  worldly  amusements. 

And  I  find  not  a  sentence  in  either  of  the  four  Gospels  incul- 
cating the  doctrine  that  the  indulgence  of  the  ''play  element"  in 


THE  CREED  IN  THE  DEED.  137 

our  nature  is  essential  to,  or  even  compatible  with  the  highest 
form  of  Christian  experience. 

But  let  anj  one  who  lives  upon  the  mount  of  communion,  who 
wrestles  with  God,  and  lives  in  a  revival  spirit,  day  after  day,  in- 
dulge in  pleasure-seeking  and  hilarious  mirth,  then  go  to  his 
closet,  and  see  if  he  can  offer  "  the  fervent,  effectual  prayer  "  that 
prevails  with  God. 

Whatever  exercise^  recreation  or  amuse7nent  is  esseiitial  to  healthy 
and  is  really  taken  for  the  glory  of  God^  as  a  necessary  condition  of 
our  highest  nsefuhiess,  and  engaged  in.,  not  for  the  sake  of  the 
amusement^  hut  as  an  offering  attd  service  reordered  to  God^  andy  ac- 
cording to  our  best  light  and  judgment  ^  the  best  thing  ive  can  do  for 
the  time  to  jit  ourselves  for  highest  usefulness  in  the  Kingdom  of 
Gody — is  right  and  duty. 

All  pleasure-seeking,  for  the  sake  of  the  pleasure,  and  not  de- 
signed to  glorify  God,  and  advance  the  interests  of  His  Kingdom, 
is  wrong. 

Only  let  the  Holy  Spirit,  with  all  His  quickening  and  enlighten- 
ing influences,  bathe  the  soul  in  heavenly  light  from  day  to  day, 
and  the  lower  and  worldly  aspirations  of  the  soul  will  be  effectu- 
ally suppressed. — Pres.  C.  G.  Finney. 

To  be  able  to  look  at  a  pleasure,  yet  to  keep  it  at  arm's  length 
for  the  sake  of  a  brother,  is  the  highest  attainment  of  discipline. — 
Ecce  Deus. 

Italy,  for  fifteen  hundred  years,  has  turned  all  her  energies,  all 
her  finances,  and  all  her  industry  to  the  building  up  of  a  vast  army 
of  wonderful  church  edifices,  and  starving  half  her  citizens  to  ac- 
complish it.  She  is  to-day  one  vast  museum  of  magnificence  and 
misery.  All  the  churches  in  an  ordinary  American  city  put  to- 
gether, could  hardly  buy  the  jewelled  frippery  in  one  of  her 
hundred  cathedrals. — Mark  T-wain. 


Against  the  pain,  even  the  eternal  pain  of  loss, — against  the 
certain  truth  that  we  shall  receive  according  to  our  works, — 
against  Christ's  revelation  that  there  will,  in  the  life  to  come,  be 
degrees  of  punishment,  light  or  heavy,  in  proportion  to  the  de- 
grees of  guilt;  that  these  punishments  will  come  by  the  working 
of  natural  laws, — the  penalty  being  the  natural  result  of  the  sin, 
not  the  arbitrary  infliction  of  external  agency ;  that  a  soul  may 
possibly,  e\-en  forever,  by  its  own  act  and  its  own  will,  shut  itself 
out  from  the  presence  of  God,  and  be  unreclaimed,  even  by  the 
bitter  taste  of  the  fruit  of  its  own  doings ; — these  are  doctrines 
neither  unjust  nor  unmerciful,  nor  is  there  anything  in  them 
which  revolts  and  maddens  the  conscience,  and  the  instincts  of 
mankind. — Canon  Farrar. — Mercy  and  Judgment. 

May  we  not  trace  something  not  wholly  unlike  the  irrevocable 
sentence  of  the  future,  in  that  dark  and  fearful,  yet  too,  certain  law 
of  our  nature,  by  which  sin  and  misery  ever  tend  to  perpetuate 
themselves,  by  which  evil  habits  gather  strength  with  every  fresh 
indulgence,  till  it  is  no  longer,  humanly  speaking,  in  the  power  of 
the  sinner  to  shake  off  the  burden  which  his  own  deeds  have  laid 
upon  him  ?  In  that  mysterious  condition  of  the  depraved  will, 
compelled,  and  yet  free, — the  slave  of  sinful  habit,  yet  responsible 
for  every  act  of  sin,  and  gathering  deeper  condemnation  as  the 
power  of  amendment  grows  less  and  less, — may  we  not  see  some 
possible  foreshadowing  of  the  yet  deeper  guilt  and  the  yet  more 
hopeless  misery  of  the  worm  thatdieth  not,  and  the  fire  that  is  not 
quenched?  The  fact,  awful  as  it  is,  is  one  to  which  our  every 
day's  experience  bears  witness. — Mansel. — Limits  of  Religious 
Thought. 

L'Enfer  c'est  le  peche  meme.  L'Enfer  c'est  d'etre  eloigne  de 
Dieu. — Bossuet. 

Juste  Judex  ultionis! 
Donum  fac  remissionis 
Ante  diem  rationis 

Ingemisco  tanquam  reus. 
Culpa  rubet  vultus  mens: 
Supplicanti  parce,  Deus! 


— Dies  Ires. 


(138) 


CHAPTER  III. 


NO  CONTRITION,— NO  REMISSION. 

Excep   ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish. — Luke  xiit:j. 
And  these  shall  depart  into  everlasting  punishment. — Mattk. 
XXV.  4.6. 

Until  the  advent  of  Jesus,  retaliation  for  injury  re- 
ceived in  body,  property  or  reputation,  had  not  been 
deemed,  save  by  a  few  extraordinary  sages,  antago- 
nistic to  the  philanthropic  spirit,  or  the  Hebrew  faith. 

Ye  have  heard,  said  He,  that  it  was  said:  An  eye 
for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth.  But  I  say  unto 
you:  Eetaliate  not  upon  the  evil  doer.  .  ,  .  That, 
thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor,  and  hate  thine  enemy. 
But  I  say  unto  you:  Love  your  enemies,  speak  kindly 
to  those  who  curse  you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate 
you,  and  pray  for  them  who  calumniate  and  perse- 
cute you.     Matth.  v  38-44. 

These  injunctions  were  given  to  individuals,  with 
respect  to  their  mutual  conduct  towards  each  other, 
in  private  and  personal  relations; — not  to  Society  or 
the  State,  for  guidance  in  dealing  with  offenders 
against  the  rights  and  interests  of  members, — there- 
fore against  the  common  weal.  They  were  given, 
specially,  to  His  disciples. 

There  has  been  no  difficulty  in  the  comprehension 

(139) 


140  THE  CHRIST   IN  LIFE. 

of  the  spirit  of  this  requirement;  there  has  been 
much  with  respect  to  specific  application, — to  condi- 
tions of  forgiveness,  and  to  distinctions  in  wrongs. 

Unquestionably,  believers  are  required  by  the  Mas- 
ter to  love  all  men,  the  bad  as  well  as  good,  even  per- 
sonal enemies,  not  once  their  wicked  conduct. 

While  they  may  love  the  souls  of  the  depraved, 
they  can  never  cease  to  abhor  their  unrighteous  con- 
duct. Nor  is  a  desu-e  to  see  just  i)unishment  inflicted 
upon  them,  as  transgressors  against  God,  society,  or 
an  individual,  at  all  inconsistent  or  in  conflict  with 
that  love,  the  injured  must  cherish  ever  for  the  spir- 
itual welfare  of  the  injurers.  Indeed,  the  truly  con- 
trite for  sin  acquiesce  in  and  approve  their  just  pun- 
ishment for  it.  Unquestionably,  also,  the  Christian 
is  bound  to  forgive  an  injury  done  to  him  by  a  brother 
man — believer  or  unbeliever,  when  he  evinces  genuine 
contrition  for  his  wrong,  even  to  unlimited  repetition; 
for  the  divine  bound  to  forgiveness  is  not  a  definite 
"seven  times,"  but  the  indefinite  "seventy  times 
seven."  It  will  be  noticed,  however,  in  the  seven- 
teenth of  Luke,  that  the  repeated  condition  of  for- 
giveness is,  "?//ze  7'e'pe?2/."  The  contrition  must  be 
genuine;  not  merely  regret,  induced  by  the  fear  of 
detection,  and  by  dread  of  just  punishment,  but  that 
"  godly  sorrow "  which  "worketh  repentance."  The 
wrong-doer  cannot  justly  demand  forgiveness, — the 
formal  remission  of  his  wrong,  until  he  has  first  man- 
ifested contrition  for  it.  The  degree  of  its  turpitude 
will  be  determined  by  his  knowledge  or  ignorance, 
his  alleged  good  or  bad  intent,  which  can  only  be  dis- 
cerned   by    God.       "Father!    forgive    them,"  said 


FORGIVENESS  CONDITIONED  ON  REPENTANCE.      141 

Jesus,  "  for  they  know  not  what  they  do."  The  in- 
clination to  forgive, — the  yearning  for  the  privilege 
of  its  manifestation  may  be  dominant; — love,  pity, 
dissociated  from  any  retaliatory  desire,  may  be  cher- 
ished ever  in  the  heart  of  the  wronged  towards  the 
wrong-doer;  but  by  what  ethical  stress  can  the  act  or 
word  of  forgiveness  be  demanded  or  be  pronounced, 
except  on  the  ground  of  the  Godly  contrition  of  him 
who  has  wronged?  Jesus,  oui'  Teacher  and  Exem- 
plar, declared:  "If  ye  forgive  not  men  their  tres- 
passes, neither  will  your  Heavenly  Father  forgive 
your  trespasses."  And  He  taught  all  His  disciples 
to  pray:  "Forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  forgive  our 
debtors."  But  this  presupposed  contrition,  and  a  de- 
sire for  forgiveness,  on  the  part  of  the  "debtor." 
When  believers  pray  to  their  Heavenly  Father:  "For- 
give us  our  debts,"  truly  they  are,  or  must  be,  in  a 
sorrowful  state  of  heart  on  account  of  them,  and  de- 
sire their  remission.  Could  they  expect  the  grant  of 
their  petition  from  the  Father,  otherwise?  Would 
He  grant  it?  Assuredly  not.  The  beloved  disciple 
declared:  If  we  confess  our  sins,  He  is  faithful  and 
righteous  to  forgive  us  our  sins.  I  John  i:9.  Con- 
trition, inclusive  of  confession  to  God  and  the  wronged, 
is  made  a  condition  precedent  to  the  obtainment  of 
forgiveness  from  Him.  Surely,  then,  wrong-doers 
have  no  right  to  expect  forgiveness  from  those  they 
have  wronged,  unless  they  are  in  the  contrite  state. 
God  is  said  to  be,  anthropopathically, — in  language 
suited  to  human  apprehension,  "angry  with  the 
wicked  every  day."  Jesus,  the  final  Judge,  represents 
Himself,  under  the  figure  of  the  "nobleman,"  as  say- 


142  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

ing:  Howbeit  these  Mine  enemies,  who  would  not 
that  I  should  reign  over  them,  bring  hither,  and  slay 
them  before  Me.  Luke  xix:27.  And  the  prophet, 
speaking  in  His  name,  exclaimed:  Behold,  ye  de- 
spisers,  and  wonder  and  perish.  Actsxiii:41.  Did 
He  forgive  them  ?  In  His  expiring  agonies  on  the 
Cross,  He  prayed,  indeed:  "Father!  forgive  them, 
for  they  know  not  what  they  do.'*  But  this,  it  is  be- 
lieved, had  special,  if  not  exclusive  reference  to  the 
Eoman  soldiery,  who,  without  thought  or  question, 
were  the  blind  and  passive  executioners  of  the  will  of 
their  military  superiors.  The  Son  of  God  rose  to 
grander  heights  of  magnanimity,  than  human- 
ity has  ever  attained;  and  He  might  have  cried  with- 
in Himself:  "  Poor,  murderous  Scribes,  Pharisees! — 
hypocrites  though  they  be," — "Father,  forgive  them." 
But  could  He  additionally  cry,  "for  they  know  not 
what  they  do?"  Did  they  not  know?  Poor,  brutal, 
heathen  soldiery!  They  did  not  realize  the  inhuman- 
ity, the  enormity  of  the  crime  they  perpetrated. 
Their  vocation  was  human  butchery.  They  had  be- 
come insensible  to  human  suffering.  Earely,  if  ever, 
had  their  minds  been  stirred  with  the  discussion  of 
such  refined  topics  as  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  a  vic- 
tim passed  over  to  their  torture.  The  cry  from  the 
great  heart  of  Jesus  was,  as  it  must  be  for  all  such 
from  those  who  would  approximate  to  Him:  "Father! 
forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do."  It  is 
difficult  for  the  great-minded  and  the  large-hearted 
to  cherish  resentment  towards  simple  ignorance, — the 
lack  in  realization  of  the  baseness  of  wicked 
conduct.     It  is  pity,  rather,  for  it,  sorrow  more  than 


SCEIBES  AND  PHAKISEES  KNEW  WHAT  THEY  DIDi    143 

anger.  The  sense  of  justice,  however, — consciousness 
of  specific  right  and  wrong,  is  not  utterly  extinguished 
in  the  most  brutal.  Can  the  emotion  be  the  same  to- 
wards intelligent,  conscious  transgressors?  It  can- 
not be.  Was  Jesus  thinking  of  these  sacerdotal  mur- 
derers in  that  awful  hour,  when  He  sent  up  out  of 
His  agony  such  a  cry  to  His  Father?  It  is  believed 
not.  Of  all  men  of  their  time,  and  of  their  nation, 
they  were  the  most  intelligent  and  refined  in  Biblical 
casuistry,  in  the  subtle  distinctions  of  legal  morality, 
for  they  had  ever  the  law  and  the  prophets.  They, 
in  the  coolest  blood,  with  malice  prepense,  conspired 
for  His  death,  knowing  Him  to  be  innocent.  Was  it 
for  them?  It  is  presumed  not.  How  could  He  pre- 
sent such  a  petition  on  their  behalf?  They  knew 
what  they  did.  So  did  Pilate.  Must  it  not  have  been 
exclusively  for  those  barbarian  soldiers?  It  might 
have  included  the  ignorant  Jewish  rabble,  howling  at 
the  beck  and  stimulus  of  the  Priesthood:  "Crucify, 
Him!     Crucify  Him!" 

Ah!  if  compunction  had  seized  upon  these  sacer- 
dotal murderers,  while  this  Tragedy  of  tragedies  was 
being  enacted,  doubtless  He  would  have  cried: 
"Father!  forgive  them,  for  they  are  coming  to  repent." 
Or,  He  might  have  cried  out  for  them  in  their  God- 
forsaken condition:  "Father!  make  them  realize 
what  they  have  done."  Bring  them  to  repentance, — 
in  the  spirit  of  a  kindred  exclamation,  "O  Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem,"  etc.,  that  I  may  forgive.  So  must  all 
His  followers  cry  out  for  those  who  designedly,  de- 
liberately, intelligently  wrong  them  and  others. 
Thus  must  they  distinguish,  in  the  character  of  their 


141  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

petitions,  between  the  consciously  and  the  uncon- 
sciously wicked.  Forgive  those  who  know  not  what 
they  do!  Open  their  eyes,  that  they  may  see!  Or, 
seize  upon  the  adamantine-hearted,  the  conscience- 
seared,  with  the  omnipotent  energies  of  Thy  Spirit, 
that  they  may  repent!  Or,  if  they  will  not,  and  will 
stand  in  the  exercise  of  the  freedom  of  their  will,  as 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  Thy  cause, — athwart  the  path 
of  Divine  progress, — their  conduct  conspiring  for, 
conducing  to  the  material  and  the  spiritual  ruin  of 
multitudes  of  souls;  let  them  go  down;  let  them  be 
swept  away.     Why  not?     Why  shouldn't  they? 

It  was  at  such  momentous  junctures,  under  such 
solemn  circumstances,  that  David  was  impelled,  as 
will  every  just  and  God-fearing  person  be,  to  cry 
out  in  those  objurgatory,  so  styled,  "imprecatory,"  in 
fact,  prophetic  Psalms:  Desolations  are  impending 
over  them!  They  shall  descend  to  Sheol  alive!  for 
wickedness  is  in  their  dwellings,  in  their  heart.  Ps. 
lv:15.  Let  them  be  as  chaff  before  a  wind:  the  angel 
of  Jehovah  striking  them  down.  Let  their  way  be 
dark  and  slippery:  the  angel  of  Jehovah  pursuing 
them.  For  without  cause  they  hid  for  me  their  pit- 
fall; without  cause  they  digged  for  my  soul.  Let 
ruin  come  upon  him  unawares;  and  let  his  net  which 
he  hid, — let  it  take  him  into  that  very  ruin.  And  my 
soul  shall  exult  in  Jehovah,  shall  joy  in  His  salvation. 
Ps.  XXXV :  5-9.  Do  to  them  as  Thou  did'st  to  Midian: 
as  to  Sisera,  as  to  Jabin,  in  the  valley  of  the  Kishon. 
They  were  destroyed  at  Endor,  they  were  dung  to  the 
earth.  .  .  .  O  my  God!  make  them  like  the 
whirling  chaff  before  the  wind.     As  fire  consumes  a 


THE  IMPRECATORY  PSALMS.  145 

forest,  and  as  flame  setteth  the  mountains  on  fire;  so 
wilt  Thou  pursue  them  with  Thy  storm,  and  with  Thy 
tempest  terrify  them.  Fill  their  faces  with 
shame,  aJid  men  will  seek  Thy  name,  Jehovah! 
Ps.  lxxxiii:9-16.  Many  such  righteous  cries  went  up 
to  God  from  oppressed  hearts  during  the  late  South- 
ern rebellion,  and,  it  is  believed,  they  prevailed.^ 

When  men  deliberately  stand  up  and  defy  God  Al- 
mighty, why  should  they  not  go  down, — perish,  if 
they  will  not  cease  their  defiance,  quit  their  rebellion, 
get  out  of  the  way  of  the  chariot  of  His  progress? 
Such  an  issue  being  made,  one  or  the  other  must 
yield, — go  down.     Must,  will  God? 

On  the  heads  of  the  guilty,  responsible  principals 
in  these  atrocities,  Jesus  foretold  that  most  terrible 
calamities  would  fall.  "Fill  ye  up  the  measure  of 
your  fathers.  Serpents!  brood  of  vipers!  how  can  ye 
escape  the  damnation  of  Gehenna?"  He  solemnly 
announced  to  the  High  Priest,  Head-Center  in  this 
Tragedy  of  wrong,  that  he  and  his  confederates  shall 
henceforth  see  Him,  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of 
Power,  and  coming  on  the  clouds  of  Heaven.  Matth. 
xxvi:64.     And  to  Pilate  He  said:    He  that  delivered 

I.  A  renowned  professor  was  once  walking  in  Boston  with  a 
clergyman  of  a  radical  faith,  who  objected  to  the  doctrine  that  the 
Bible  is  inspired,  and  did  so  on  the  ground  of  the  imprecatory 
Psalms.  .  .  .  The  two  came  at  last  to  a  newspaper  bulletin,  on 
which  the  words  were  written,  (the  time  was  at  the  opening  of 
our  civil  war),  "  Baltimore  to  be  shelled  at  I2  o'clock."  <' I  am 
glad  of  it  said  the  radical  preacher,  I  am  glad  of  it."  "  And  so  am 
I,"  said  his  companion,  "but  I  hardly  dare  say  so,  for  fear  you  will 
say,  I  am  uttering  an  imprecatory  psalm. — y^os.  Cook. 
10 


146  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

Me  unto  thee,  hath  greater  sin.  Johnxixill.  "The 
times  of  ignorance,  God  winks  at," — overlooks,  doubt- 
less, forgives  unconscious  guilt;  for  where  none  is 
realized  in  intention,  there  will,  necessarily,  be  no 
contrition,  though  there  will  be  subsequent  sorrow, 
when  the  apprehending,  accusing  hour  doth  come. 
There  are  multitudes  of  offenses  against  it  personally, 
of  which  a  soul,  in  its  magnanimity,  may  take  no  note, 
chiefly  on  account  of  the  ignorance  of  the  offender. 
As  it  approaches  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  Just  One, 
that  number  will  be  increased.  But,  outside  and  in- 
dependent of  one's  self,  with  respect  to  injury  re- 
ceived, sin  committed,  remains  a  duty  to  be  performed 
— paramount — to  God  and  to  society  at  large.  Sin 
will  be  always  sin,  and  can  never  be  minified,  is  to  be 
repented  of,  and  to  be  redressed  sometime.  As  against 
holiness  and  the  government  of  God,  it  must  be  noted, 
and  take  its  legitimate  penalty. 

Believers  must  make  the  same  distinction  between 
ignorant  transgressors,  unconscious  of  their  wrong- 
doing, and  intelligent  wrong-doers,  fully  cognizant  of 
theirs.  For  the  first,  they  may  fittingly,  after  the 
example  of  their  suffering  Savior,  earnestly  plead: 
"Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do."  For  the  last,  out  of  the  fullness  of  a  forgiving 
heart,  if  able  to  attain  to  it,  they  may  send  up  a  cry 
to  God,  as  did  the  martyr  Stephen  for  his  Hebrew 
murderers:  "Lord!  lay  not  this  sin  to  their  charge, 
—with  the  limitation,  of  course,  if  it  "be  Thy  will." 
But  can  it  be  believed,  that  God  did  not  lay  this  sin 
to  their  charge,  if  they  did  not  subsequently  repent? 
Nay,  indeed,  He  must  have  done  so:  we  would  rev- 


SINNERS  WILL  BE  HELD  ACCOUNTABLE.     147 

erently  say,  He  did  do  it  When  the  Hebrew  martyr 
High  Priest  Zechariah  was  given  up  to  assassination 
by  the  ingrate,  recreant  Joash,  he  justly  cried:  The 
Lord  look  upon  it,  and  require  (requite?)  it,  which 
God  did,  and  will  ever.  II  Chron.  xxiv:22.  One  of 
the  witnesses,  the  noted  Saul  of  Tarsus,  did  repent, 
and  his  sin  was  remembered, — for  judicial  cognizance 
and  charge  .no  more,  though  he  himself  could  not 
cease  to  remember  it  with  sorrow.  Against  others, — 
principals,  accomplices,  confederates,  or  consenting 
witnesses,  this  murderous  crime  must  have  been  laid. 
Has  He  not,  on  every  occasion,  declared  He  would 
hold  sinners  accountable  for  sin?  Has  He  ever  re- 
mitted it  without  prior  confession, — the  realization 
and  expression  of  sorrow  for  it?  Indeed,  if  Stephen 
could  speak  to  us  from  those  holy  heights  he  has  as- 
cended, would  he  not  declare,  that  justice  requires 
their  punishment,  if  they  did  not  subsequently 
repent? 

The  example  of  the  Divine  Father  is  presented  to 
His  children  for  imitation.  As  they  are  able  to  ap- 
proximate, in  the  least,  to  His  supreme  goodness  and 
perfection,  they  are  moving  in  the  safe  path.  He 
maketh  His  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  the  good,  and 
sendeth  rain  on  the  just  a^nd  the  unjust.  Matth.  v:45. 
But  the  inquiry  is  pressed:  Does  He  remit  sin  before 
the  manifestation  of  repentance  on  the  part  of  the 
sinner?  Thus  may  believers  invoke  the  blessings  of 
a  repentant  state  on  their  personal  enemies,  most  ef- 
fectually, by  faithful  testimony  to  their  wrong;  re- 
turn kindness  for  evil;  contribute  to  their  necessities; 
love  them;   pray  for  them, — not  only  that  they  may 


148  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

be  prospered  in  temporal  things,  if  it  will  conduce  in 
fact  to  their  real  welfare  and  to  God's  glory,  but, 
above  all,  that  they  be  blessed  spiritually  in  the  real- 
ization of  their  depraved  condition,  in  conviction  of 
their  guilt,  and  in  repentance  for  it.  But  can  they 
be  said  to  forgive  wrong,  when  there  has  been  no 
previous  contrition  for  it?  Does  the  Christian 
parent  ever  cease  to  love  his  sinful,  disobedient,  un- 
repenting  child  with  all  possible  intensity,  to  yearn 
for  his  recovery  from  waywardness,  to  plead  for  him 
with  God,  day  and  night,  with  tears,  while  he  refrains, 
by  necessity,  from  the  pronunciation  of  those  melting 
words,  "  I  cease,  by  forgiveness,  to  remember  thy  dis- 
obedience for  charge  against  thee,"  until  he  first  sees 
in  the  heart  of  the  child,  that  sign  of  Godly  sorrow 
that  conduces  to  repentance,  in  some  form  expressed? 
Words  are  not  essential.  They  may  not  be  spoken. 
There  are  deeper,  surer  indications  of  sorrow.  The 
loving  heart  can  always  detect  and  interpret  them. 
They  can  be  discerned  a  great  way  off.  There  may 
be  no  forgiving  demonstration,  though  there  be  yearn- 
ing for  the  exercise.  The  expression  is  not  given, 
the  sacred  words  are  not  pronounced,  until  the  melt- 
ing occasion  comes.  The  child  must  first  repent. 
Does  the  judge  hate  the  criminal,  though  he  is  com- 
pelled to  pass  sentence  upon  him  ?  May  he  not  love 
him,  pity  him,  yearn  for  his  eternal  weal,  while  he  is 
meting  out  to  him  the  legal  and  the  just  penalty  for 
his  crime?  Does  a  true  church,  the  body  of  Christ, 
decline  to  come  at  last  to  the  act  of  excision,  w^hen  of- 
fenders, after  the  faithful  and  patient  performance  of 
the  prescribed  steps  of  labor,  prove  to  be  incorrigible 


PRIVATE  AND  PUBLIC  INJURIES.  149 

and  refuse  to  repent?  Can  it  be  said  to  manifest  an 
unrelenting  spirit,  because  it  does  not  forgive  before 
the  manifestation  of  repentance?  Did  our  govern- 
ment indiscriminately  forgive  impenitent  rebels,  re- 
mit all  penalties  for  their  crime,  and  restore  them 
completely  to  that  political  state  they  enjoyed  before 
their  rebellion?  Yet,  unquestionably,  in  its  public 
acts,  it  cherished  towards  them  no  other  emotions 
than  of  love  and  grief;  indeed,  ran  like  a  father,  to 
meet  them,  more  than  half  way,  to  induce  them  to 
return  again  to  the  family  of  the  Nation, — the  "United 
States."  Indeed,  it  is  questionable,  whether  its  leni- 
ency in  special  instances  was  not  mistaken — a  confes- 
sion of  weakness,  and  of  inability  to  properly  vindi- 
cate justice  and  right. 

There  is,  also,  a  distinction  between  public  and 
private  injuries.  And  injury  to  the  individual  is 
wrong  to  society  and  to  God  as  well.  While  the  in- 
dividual may  forgive  for  himself  on  the  evidence  of 
contrition,  he  cannot  forgive  for  society,  or  for  God. 
What  would  become  of  the  world,  if  this  mawkish 
sentimentalism  of  forgiveness  without  repentance, 
and  its  demonstrated  fruits,  did  prevail?  There 
would  be  no  government,  no  security  for  person,  rights 
or  property.  Anarchy  would  succeed.  Transgressors 
must  repent  to  the  wronged  individual,  the  injured 
society,  the  disobeyed  God,  if  by  them  they  would  be 
forgiven.  There  is  no  other  alternative.  Without 
hesitation,  it  is  said  to  thee,  O  sinner!  thou  must  first 
repent,  if  thou  would' st  be  forgiven;  otherwise  there 
is  no  hope  for  thee.  Thou  must  take  the  eternal  con- 
sequences of  thy  continued  alienation  from  God,  un- 


150  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

less  thou  wilt  be  reconciled  to  Him  in  His  way;  and 
such  consequences  are  Gehenna.  There  need  be  no 
other.  This  is  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  living 
God.     Eepent,  O  fallen  one!     Obtain  forgiveness,  or 

THOU  ART  lost! 

Doubtless,  the  prescriptions  of  Jesus,  with  respect 
to  the  treatment  of  offenders,  had  special  reference  to 
the  local  circumstances  of  His  disciples  when  in  the 
flesh,  as  well  as  for  universal  application.  They  must 
not  "resist,"  physically,  the  "evil" — not  retaliate  upon 
the  evil-doer  for  the  personal  injury  inflicted  by  him, 
— Gentile  or  heathen  unbeliever.  There  could  be  no 
satisfactory  redress;  indeed,  they  might  be  compelled 
to  suffer  additionally,  if  the  State  came  to  note  the 
variance  and  the  controversy.  But  can  it  be  believed, 
that  our  Savior  meant  to  enjoin  non-resistance,  pas- 
sive submission  to  every  species  of  physical  or  moral 
wrong,  under  any  circumstances,  in  any  age  of  the 
world,  on  the  part  of  individuals  or  of  communities? 
If  so,  what  would  have  become  of  all  Christian  gov- 
ernments in  their  gigantic  contests  with  diabolism? 
— the  Netherlands,  France  and  England,  our  own  na- 
tion in  the  late  rebellion? 

Believers  were  to  "rebuke"  the  offending,  impeni- 
tent "brother;"  but  if  he  "repented,"  they  were  to 
"forgive  him."  If  he  did  not  repent,  after  the  com- 
pletion of  the  steps  of  labor  prescribed  (Matth.  xviii), 
his  case  was  to  be  brought  to  the  church;  if  he  would 
not  hear  it,  he  was  to  be  treated  as  "  a  heathen  and  a 
publican," — to  be  refused  fellowship,  and  even  asso- 
ciation. This  is  decisive.  The  Apostles  followed 
with  directions,  in  accordance. 


THE  PATERNAL  DEALING.  151 

Ah!  it  may  be  said  and  'tis  true,  that  theology  in 
the  letter,  rigid,  inflexible,  just,  as  law  in  the  abstract 
is,  fails  us, — being  human,  when  we  stand  by  the  dy- 
ing bed  of  our  loved  ones,  especially  children.  We 
remember  their  transgressions  no  more.  Memories 
of  certain  elements  of  goodness,  attractiveness,  come 
in  troops.  The  prattle,  the  innocency,  the  guileless- 
ness,  the  sweetness,  the  lovingness  and  the  trustful- 
ness of  their  childhood  rise  up  before  us.  Extenua- 
tions, palliations  of  their  faults, — lapses,  as  they  have 
affected  us  personally,  follow;  and  parental  love  will 
endeavor  to  remember  them  for  charge  no  more. 
But  can  the  unconditioned  forgiveness  of  a  parent's 
heart  cover  their  wrong-doing,  as  it  has  affected 
others, — God?  True,  there  are  no  limitations  to  the 
heart  of  the  Divine  Parent,  as  there  are  to  the  human. 
Doubtless,  there  is  some  analogy  between  the  dealings 
of  a  human  and  the  Divine  Father  in  such  an  exig- 
ency, as  there  is  correspondence  in  their  emotions. 
Does  He  not  deal  with  us  Here  as  children?  Conse- 
quences cannot  be  averted,  as  we  are  able  to  appre- 
hend; as  not  Here,  so  not  There!  Consequences 
upon  others!  Ah!  consequences  upon  ourselves! 
They  retro-act.  Logically,  however  deep,  tender, 
yearning,  deathless  may  be  the  love,  compassion  of  a 
Father's  heart, — human  or  divine,  we  are  not  able  to 
see  how  they  can  cease.  'Tis  possible  for  God  to  stop 
them,  as  all  things  are  possible  to  Him.  He  can  an- 
nihilate.    Does  Hef     Will  He? 

Jesus  revealed  God  as  a  Father.  To  all  His  decla- 
rations and  requirements, — the  developments  of  His 
providence.  He  gave  a  paternal  interpretation.     He 


152  THE  CHRIST   IN  LIFE. 

> 

taught  us  thus  to  pray  and  to  trust  in  Him.  The 
imagery  He  employed  for  the  illustration  of  the  di- 
vine government, — tlie  relations  of  men  to  Him,  the 
emotions  He  ever  retains  towards  them, — sinners 
feven,  wayward,  impenitent,  incorrigible, —  was  pa- 
ternal. All  theology,  therefore,  claiming  to  be  Chris- 
tian, should  be  based  on,  and  permeated  by  this  funda- 
mental representation.  The  conception  of  Jehovah 
as  arbitrary,  despotic,  stern,  relentless  and  unforgiv- 
ing, prevailed  in  some  theological  systems.  It  im- 
pressed, but  did  not  attract.  God,  doubtless,  in  the 
execution  of  what  He  deems  to  be  just  and  right,  is 
rigid  and  inflexible.  But  like  earthly  governors, 
parents,  without  their  fallibility.  He  may  be  moved 
to  take  a  certain  procedure  with  transgressors,  in 
preference  to  another,  as  just  and  right, — all  His 
varied  ways  being  absolutely  just  and  right;  until  He 
sees  there  is  no  remedy,  but  the  infliction  of  the  ulti- 
mate and  irrevocable  penalty  for  disobedience. 

A  good  father  seems  to  his  right-minded  children, 
not  only  the  wisest,  the  firmest,  but  the  best  of  men. 
— merciful,  patient,  forgiving.  He  overlooks,  he  en- 
dures, he  forgives  to  the  last.  He  remembers  when 
the  loved  one  is  humbled,  contrite,  to  punish  no  more. 

Doubtless,  the  consequences  of  sin  upon  others 
ensue,  though  God  may  forgive,  and  the  sinner  re- 
pent. There  is  no  evidence  that  God  interposes  to 
stay,  or  to  annul  the  inseparable  results  of 
wrong-doing,  save  a  specific  penalty  upon  contrition. 
It  is  difi&cult  to  conceive  that  He  could,  as  His  Uni- 
verse is  constructed.  Must  not  every  deed  impinge 
upon  some  thing  or  some  body,  in  mind  as  well  as 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  SIN  IMMEASURABLE.  153 

matter, — be  antecedent  to  some  inevitable  consequent 
in  physics  or  morals?  Are  earthly  parents  more  be- 
nign, patient,  tender,  forgiving  to  their  children  than 
the  Divine  ?  What  does  He  declare  respecting  Him- 
self? I,  I  am  He  that  blotteth  out  thy  transgres- 
sions for  Mine  own  sake,  and  will  not  remember  thy 
sins  (for  accusation) — Isaiah  xliii: 25;  that  is,  it  is 
to  be  supposed,  when  His  people  had  been  brought 
to  realize  their  insubordination,  and  thence  to  contri- 
tion. I  will  forgive  their  iniquity,  and  I  will  remem- 
ber their  sin  no  more.  Jeremiah  xxxi :  34  For  I 
will  be  merciful  to  their  imrighteousness,  and  their 
sins  and  their  iniquities  will  I  remember  no  more  (to 
accuse,  to  punish,  for  memory  is  indestructible).  Heb. 
viii:12.  The  prior  humiliation  and  contrition  for  all 
such  rebellious  are  presupposed  as  conditioiiiug  their 
forgiveness. 

God  is  Love,  it  is  said.  He  must  be  pitiful,  mer- 
ciful. He  cannot  inflict  eternal  punishment  for  a 
temporal  sin.  There  can  only  be,  it  is  affirmed,  a 
measure  of  penalty  for  a  measure  of  guilt, — a  time- 
period  of  punishment  for  a  time-period  of  sin. 

Sin,  its  degree  of  turpitude,  its  baleful  con- 
sequences, the  penalty  adequate,  requisite  therefor, 
cannot  be  measured  by  the  point  of  time  spent  in  its 
commission.  A  crime  may  be  committed  in  a  mo- 
ment, the  consequences  of  which,  even  upon  the  crim- 
inal himself,  are  not  only  endless,  but  irreparable. 
Who  is  able  to  limit  them  ?  A  forger,  by  the  stroke 
of  his  pen,  subjects  himself  to  the  felon's  doom.  Loss 
of  character  extends  beyond  that.  Confidence  in 
Him,  as  before,  never  returns.     He  may  repent  of 


154  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

his  act,  and  may  be  restored,  measurably,  to  the  trust 
of  his  fellows, — never,  altogether;  for,  though  they 
may  be  assui'ed  of  his  genuine  contrition  for  the  past, 
and  honest  intentions  for  the  future,  they  will  fear  to 
trust  him  again,  since  he  furnished  such  an  appalling 
demonstration  of  his  weakness  and  of  his  tendencies; 
— that  the  Devil's  subtlety,  through  infirmity  inherent, 
or  fastened  by  habit,  may  prove  an  overmatch  for 
him  again.     Society  at  large  will  trust  him  no  more. 

Penalties,  it  is  repeated,  are  inseparable  from  vio- 
lations of  any  physical,  intellectual  or  moral  law. 
God  cannot,  as  is  conceived, — being  such,  and  the 
constitution  of  His  Universe  being  such,  intervene 
between  them,  save  in  the  remission  of  the  specific 
penalty  upon  Godly  sorrow  required.  He  forgives 
and  saves  men  on  repentance,  but  are  the  sequences 
of  their  wrong-doing  upon  others  stayed?  Do  they 
not  travel  on,  falling  often  in  this  life  on  others,  in- 
nocent of  guilty  participation? 

It  is  presumable,  that  our  first  Parents  repented  of 
their  disobedience,  and  have  been,  ever  since,  safely 
housed  in  one  of  the  many  mansions  of  eternal  bliss; 
but  have  the  results  of  the  first  transgression  ceased? 
Can  it  be  otherwise  than  that  they  remember?  and 
remember  but  ineffectually  to  deplore?  The  pangs 
of  memory,  as  well  as  its  joys,  are  indestructible. 
Bepentance  mollifies  the  sting,  and  intensifies  the 
joy  of  realized  forgiveness.  It  will  not  be  necessary 
to  punish  transgressors  through  the  infliction  of  any 
statutory,  arbitrary  penalty.  The  punishment  is  in- 
herent in  the  transgression.  Crime  and  its  conse- 
quences are  as  inseparable  as  the  flower  from  the 


THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT — ONE  ETERNAL  NOW.      155 

bulb,  or  the  harvest  from  the   seed.     "Hell  is  sin 
itself."— "The  other  half  of  crime." 

For  every  guilty  deed  ^ 

Holds  in  itself  the  seed 

Of  retribution,  and  undying  pain.i 

Blood  for  blood,  and  blow  for  blow : 
Thou  shalt  reap  as  thou  did'st  sow.* 

Conceptions  and  anticipations  of  judgment  after 
death,  and  of  the  subsequent  punishment  of  the  con- 
demned, have  been  shaped  very  much  by  the  consid- 
eration of  judicial  machinery,  and  of  penalties  at- 
tached to  crime  in  this  world.  A  literal  interpretation 
is  given  to  the  scenery  of  Matth.  xxv^  which  probably 
is  only  symbolic, — fearfully  enough  .of  the  dread  reality 
in  the  future.  It  is  for  no  one  rashly  to  affirm  the 
improbability,  that  there  will  be  any  such  literal  an- 
alysis and  adjudication  of  the  human  race,  individ- 
ually, on  one  occasion  before  the  Judge  on  a  visible 
White  Throne.  The  scenery  is,  at  least,  a  symbol  of 
the  fearful  scrutiny  which  each  soul  will  be  compelled 
to  endure,  as  it  passes  disembodied  into  the  spiritual 
world;  for  "one  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand 
years,  and  a  thousand  years  as  pne  day."  The  Day 
of  Judgment — the  Last  Day,  is  one  eternal  Now.  The 
Books  have  ever  been  open.  Men  have  ever  been 
disappearing  from  the  earth,  and,  when  they  confront 
their  Maker,  must  be  judged.  It  is  evident,  that  all 
do  not  go  the  same  "place."  Judas,  it  is  recorded, 
went  "to  his  own  place;" — it  surely  was  not  that 

I.    Longfellow.  2.    <(^schylus. 


156  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

wliich  Jesus  went  to  prepare  for  His  disciples.'  The 
thought  is  fearful,  that  between  some  in  the  same 
circle,  at  the  same  table,  by  the  same  fireside,  in  the 
closest  relations,  there  may  be  a  measureless,  impass- 
able "chasm"  of  spiritual  state.  Each  will  go  to  his 
own  "place," — not  far  .certainly  from  him. 

Besides  the  information  given  in  these  literal  dec- 
larations, or  dramatic  glimpses  of  the  spiritual  world; 
true  conceptions,  it  is  believed,  of  the  process  of 
judgment  and  of  punishment  there,  may  be  gathered 
from  the  analogous  processes  in  this — the  material. 
Disobedience  to  any  physical,  mental  or  moral  law, 
taking  with  it  the  legitimate  penalty,  requires  no 
institution  of  Court,  Judge  or  Juror;  no  witness,  ad- 
vocate or  sheriff;  no  formal  verdict  or  sentence  for 
the  enforcement  of  its  penalty.  Judge,  juror,  wit- 
ness, advocate,  verdict,  sentence  and  executioner  ^  are 
inherent  in  the  unrepented  sins  committed. 

All  must  die  physically,  but,  ordinarily,  one  may 
protract  his  life,  or  curtail  it,  as  he  regards  or  disre- 
gards conditions  of  extended  being.  Spiritual  well- 
being  has,  also,  its  conditions.  There  is  a  voice  of 
God  in  the  soul; — a  clear  perception  of  what  is  good 
and  of  what  is  evil ;    a  standard  of  right  and  wrong, 

1.  John  xiv :  2. — I  go  to  prepare  a  place  (tottov)  for  you. 
Acts  i :  25. — That  he  might  go  to  his  own  place  (rorrov). 

Luke  xvi:28. — Lest  they  come  into  this  place  (to7:ov)  of 
torment. 

2.  The  school  men  distinguished  conscience  as  ffuvTTJprjat^ 
— the  custodian  of  accepted  precepts  or  rules;  conscience  as 
(Tuvetdrjffcq — as  witness;  and  conscience  as  eTzixplfftq — as  judge 
and  executioner — JVoa//  Porter.—Moral  Science. 


PENALTY  INVOLVED  IN  TBANSGRESSION.  157 

and  discrimination  between  them;  an  omnipresence 
of  the  sense  of  juscice,  truth  and  holiness  which  can- 
not be  put  by;  a  conscience, — consciousness  of  con- 
sciousness,—  self -consciousness;  conviction;  appre- 
hension of  coming  judgment.  The  Spirit  of  God 
comes  to  still  further  enlighten,  to  reprove,  rectify, 
stimulate  and  guide.  When  heed  is  given  to  these 
combined  behests,  joy,  self-approval  ensue.  When 
disregarded,  remorse  and  self-accusation  follow. 
These  will  be  rewards  and  punishments  as  definite  as 
the  Judgments  on  the  White  Throne,  at  the  Last 
Day.  Having  such  a  spiritual  constitution,  in  the 
midst  of  the  Universe  and  course  of  material  and 
immaterial  being, — wheel  within  wheel, — a  wheel 
within  this  Infinite  Wheel  of  the  Universe ;  the  dis- 
regarded laws  of  spiritual  well-being,  ever  executing 
their  own  penalties,  which  will  be  falling  into  the 
hands  of  the  living  God — a  fearful  thing  ( Heb.  x :  31 ) ; 
what  necessity  would  there  seem  to  be,  — it  is,  perhaps, 
presumptuous  to  even  broach  the  inquiry, — of  a  Last 
Day,  a  literal  Day  of  Judgment,  and  that  for  all,  at 
the  same  time,  and  on  the  same  occasion?  Each  and 
every  day  would  be  a  doom's  day  to  some  soul.  The 
penal  results  of  every  transgression,  involved  as  are 
flower  and  fruit  in  bulb  or  seed,  will  develop  in  their 
season.  The  feet  of  all  transgressors  shall  slide  in 
"due  time."  The  harvest  hour  must,  will  come.  It 
cannot  be  stayed.  The  Nemesis  of  sin  is  at  hand. 
"The  feet  of  the  avenger  are  shod  with  wool."  They 
are  close  upon  the  heel  of  the  fleeing  transgressor. 
Soon  he  will  overtake. 


158  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

With  slow  pace  and  silent  feet  his  doom 

O'ertakes  the  sinner  when  his  time  is  comc.t 

Confront,  thou  must,  O  sinner,  at  the  last,  thy 
doom !  Rocks  and  mountains  cannot  cover  thee  from 
the  avalanche  of  woe!  Seel  there  is  an  open  way! 
Escape  for  thy  life ! 

But  if  these  are  only  the  forebodings  of  a  pessimis- 
tic nature,  of  a  morbid  temperament,  or  diseased  im- 
agination, in  thy  view,  O  genial  one !  with  thy  hopeful 
and  rosy-tinted  anticipations  of  the  Future,  and  there 
is  no  Gehenna,  why  did  such  an  august  Savior  come? 
Why  did  He  Himself  shroud  the  Future  of  the  un- 
believer with  the  blackness  of  darkness  forever;  and 

FROM  WHAT  DOES  He  SAVE  MEN? 

The  sharpness,  positiveness  and  rigidity  of  that 
which  was  understood  in  New  England  by  the  term 
"  Orfhodoxy,''  have  been  materially  mollified  and 
modified  during  the  last  quarter  or  half  century:  cer- 
tainly, the  preaching  of  those  who  profess  to  accept 
it  has  not  been  attended  with  that  power  and  demon- 
stration that  once  accompanied  it.  All  appeals  to  the 
conscience,  and  all  logical  grapple  with  the  under- 
standing, were  based  on  the  assumption  of  the  pravity 
of  ^human  nature;  the  helplessness  of  men  in  them- 
selves as  sinners;  the  necessity,  if  they  would  be 
saved,  of  their  regeneration  through  the  Spirit,  and  of 
trust  in  the  Savior,  Jesus, — God  manifest;  that  the 
wicked  shall  go  away  into  the  punishment,  and  the 
righteous  into  the  life  which  are  eonian, — as  verities, 
clearly,  vividly,  incontrovertibly  revealed.^    The  lev- 

1.  Euripides. 

2.  The  simple  fact  is,  the  two  nouns  punishment  and  life  are 


GOD  HAS  "severity"  AS  WELL  AS  "GOODNESS."    159 

erage  brought  to  move  the  soul  upon  such  a  basis 
was  tremendous;  and  the  results  corresponded:  con- 
victions were  pungent,  radical,  revolutionary  and 
abiding.  The  severe  aspects  of  Truth  presented  and 
emphasized,  served  to  drive  souls  into  the  Kingdom 
under  the  stress  of  fear;  but  with  any  imperfection, 
it  was  certainly  one  side,  if  but  the  reverse  of  the  ob- 
verse.  The  "goodness,"  rather  than  the  "severity" 
of  God;  mercy,  than  judgment;  His  magnanimity, 
love,  unlimited  pity,  tenderness  and  placability,  un- 
wearied and  unceasing  patience,  are  in  these  recent 
times  most  beautifully  delineated  and  urged,  whilst 
His  firmness,  stability  and  inflexibility;  His  holiness, 
justice;  abhorrence  of  sin;  jealousy  for  the  honor  of 
His  government;  the  necessity  laid  upon  Him  to 
punish  all  transgressors;   the  adequate  penalty  ever 

qualitative  in  and  of  themselves,  as  indicating  the  kindoi  existence 
or  state  intended ;  while  the  adjective  is  quantitative^  as  implying 
the  duration  of  that  state  or  existence. 

"  Toujours,  jamais ;  toujours,  jamais," — in  English,  *'  Forever, 
never."  Well  may  the  mighty  clock  of  the  Future,  as  slowly  it 
beats  forth  the  centuries  and  cycles  of  eternity,  seem  unceasingly 
to  repeat  those  solem  words  in  the  hearing  of  lost  souls, 

"  The  horologe  of  Eternity 

Sayeth  this  incessantly : — 

'  Forever — never, 

Never — forever.' " 

—J.  W.  Haley,— Hereafter  of  Sin. 
Eternity  or  endlessness  is  in  itself  mainly  a  negative  idea, 
though  the  idea  of  suffering  is  positive.  Its  fearful  force,  as  an 
element  of  future  punishment,  lies  in  what  it  excludes :  it  means, 
never  any  change  of  state,  no  annihilation  or  restoration;  but 
what,  considered  positively,  it  adds  to  suffering,  we  do  not  know. 
— Cardinal  Neivman.-^Grammar  of  Assent, 


160  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

being  involved  in  the  commission  of  any  sin  by  inev- 
itable sequence, — the  effect  eternally  inseparable  from 
its  cause,  so  that  sin  is  its  own  avenger;  no  arbitrary 
Personal  God  being  needed  to  avenge  it; — all  these 
severer,  nevertheless  truthful  aspects  of  the  Gospel, 
have  not  been  as  conspicuous,  and  so  prominently 
urged  as  formerly,^ 

Ministers,  as  ijrophets  and  apostles  before  them, 
quite  naturally  have  shrunk  from  the  discussion  of 
these  awful  themes,  painful  to  themselves  and  offen- 
sive to  their  hearers.  "  Send  by  the  hand  of  him 
whom  Thou  wilt  send,"  and  "Woe  is  me,"  "because 
I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,"  are  the  exclamations  at 
heart  of  many  commissioned  ones;  and  there  have 
been  many  Jonahs.  But,  if  these  are  verities,  who 
shall  dare  to  suppress  them?  Who  shall  presume  to 
dilute,  minify  or  emasculate  God's  Word?  "What  is 
the  chaff  to  the  wheat?  He  that  hath  My  Word,  let 
him  speak  it  faithfully."  There  is,  apparently,  less 
earnestness  in  religion,  and  less  apprehension  of  the 
Future  than  formerly.  The  multitudes  surge  on,  as 
if  there  was  no  danger  ahead, — no  material  or  spirit- 
ual Mega  Chasma  in  state  or  place,  into  which  gen- 

I.  Such  indiscriminate  mashing  up  ot  Good  and  Evil  into  one 
patent-treacle,  and  most  unmedical  electuary  of  Rousseau  Senti- 
mentalism,  universal  Pardon  and  Benevolence! 

"Christianity,"  so-called,  has  grown,  to  within  these  two  cen- 
turies, on  the  Howard  and  Fry  side  as  on  every  other, — a  paltry, 
mealy-mouthed  *'  religion  of  cowards,"  who  can  have  no  religion 
but  a  sham  one,  which  also,  as  I  believe,  awaits  its  abolition  from 
the  avenging  power.  If  men  will  turn  away  their  faces  from 
God,  and  set  up  idols,  temporary  phantoms,  instead  of  the  Eternal 
One^ — alas!  the  consequences  are  from  old  well  known. — Carlyle. 


FUTURE  DESTINY  OF  THE  IMPENITENT.  161 

eration  upon  generation  has  been  tumbling.  They  do 
not  hear  the  roar  of  the  cataract  just  beyond.  True, 
fear  is  a  lower  motive  than  love  or  hope;  both  inferior 
to  supreme  regard  for  Truth  and  Eight  in  themselves, 
aside  from  any  personal  interest  involved;  but,  since 
men  are  weak,  swayed  by  their  supposed  interests, — 
children  in  years  and  knowledge,  and  cannot  be  de- 
terred from  violation  of  God's  Law  by  appeal  to  the 
higher  motives  of  love  for  it,  appeals  to  the  lower  mo- 
tives are  justifiable  for  the  attainment  of  the  divine 
end.  God,  in  his  dealings  with  the  Hebrews,  during 
the  long  line  of  their  national  history,  never  failed  to 
avail  Himself  of  these  means  to  move.  He  so  acts  as 
a  Divine  Father,  and  all  wise  parents  resort  in  like 
ways  to  sway  their  children.  Behold,  therefore,  the 
kindness  and  severity  of  God:  on  the  fallen  in  sin, 
severity;  but  upon  thee,  kindness,  if  thou  dost  con- 
tinue to  be  worthy  of  it:  otherwise,  thou  shalt  be 
cut  off.  Komans  xi:22.  Knowing,  therefore,  the 
fear  of  the  Lord,  we  persuade  men.     II  Cor.  v:ll. 

Yes,  there  is,  must  be  Gehenna, — spiritual  state  or 
place,  where  the  worm  of  remorse  dieth  not  and  the 
fire  thereof  is  not  quenched,  for  the  finally  incorrigi- 
ble,— robbers,  murderers,  oppressors, — the  mean,  the 
vile,  the  inhuman  who  will  not  repent,  and  so  far  as 
they  can,  undo  and  recompense  the  wrong  they  have 
perpetrated  and  the  distress  they  have  caused  on  the 
earth;  otherwise,  how  could  the  goodness  and  the  jus- 
tice of  God  be  vindicated? — those  who  have  passed 
through  the  great  tribulation  caused  by  the  diabolic, 
be  compensated  for  their  suffering?    Will  there  be 

11 


162  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

no  distinction  between  the  career  of  the  good  and  tlio 
bad,  in  the  other  life, — in  their  final  destiny?  There 
must  be.  O  Thou  Good  and  Omnipotent!  Thou  art 
Just  and  Holy,  as  well  as  Good!  Wickedness  is  ut- 
terly offensive  and  abhorrent  to  Thee ! — must  be  to  all 
who  love  Thee,  who  would  be  like  Thee !  Thou  must 
and  Thou  wilt  mete  out  its  condemnation.  The  God- 
defiant  must  take  the  consequences  of  undertaking  to 
run  against  Thee, — be  triturated!  The  wrongs  of  the 
innocent  and  the  just  must  be  redressed,  and  Thy 
Justice  vindicated!  Amen!  and  Amen!  So  let  it  be. 
Eighteous  art  Thou,  Who  art  and  wast.  Thou  Holy 
One!  because  Thou  did'st  thus  judge.  For  they 
poured  out  the  blood  of  saints  and  prophets,  and 
Thou  hast  given  them  blood  to  di'ink:  they  are  de- 
serving. .  .  .  Yea,  O  Lord  God,  the  Almighty, 
True  and  Eighteous  are  Thy  Judgments!  Kev. 
xvi:5,  6,  7. 


ILLUSTRATIVE  AND  SUGGESTIVE. 


Next  to  the  originator  of  a  good  sentence  is  the  first  quoter  of  it. — Emerson, 


I  am  to  love  the  bad  man ;  but  I  am  also  to  love  society ;  to  love 
my  family,  my  friends,  my  country ;  and  if  the  bad  man  arm  him- 
self for  the  ruin  of  these,  I  am  bound  to  repel  him  In  so  doing, 
do  I  not  act  from  a  principle  of  charity,  especially  if  to  save  the 
good,  to  defend  the  community,  I  expose  my  own  life  in  resisting 
the  bad?  I  can  certainly  oppose  a  wicked  man's  purposes,  and  in 
so  doing  can  inflict  on  him  severe  pain,  without  hating  him,  and 
even  with  the  deepest  grief  for  his  character  and  punishment.  I 
may  even  feel,  through  the  strength  of  my  philanthropy,  a  se- 
verer pain  than  I  inflict. — Dr.  Channing. — Me^noirs. 

The  duty  of  Christian  forgiveness  does  not  require  you,  nor  are 
you  allowed  to  look  on  injustice,  or  any  other  fault  with  indiffer- 
ence, as  if  it  were  nothing  wrong  at  all,  merely  because  it  is  you 
that  have  been  wronged. — Archbishop  Whately. — Notes  on  Bacon. 

The  philanthropic  man  may  even  love  his  enemies,  bless  them 
that  curse  him,  and  pray  for  them  that  despitefully  use  him  and 
persecute  him,  and  yet  not  for  give  them  in  the  right  sense  of  that 
term.  The  man  may  excuse  an  offense  against  himself,  but  he 
has  no  power  to  excuse  an  offense  against  righteousness. 

God  Himself  cannot  forgive  a  sinner  apart  from  certain  con- 
ditions, which  the  sinner  himself  must  supply.  .  God  does 
not  inflict  the  punishment,  the  punishment  is  the  effect  of  a  cause. 
.  .  .  God  cannot  annihilate  a  moral  agent.  .  .  When  Christ 
said,  "  He  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned>  he  announced  a 
consequence,  he  did  not  threaten  a  penalty. — Ecce  Deus. 

We  are  reminded  of  the  duty  of  "mutual  forgiveness."  Is  all 
the  wickedness,  then,  that  I  am  doomed  to  witness,  nothing  but  a 

a63) 


161  THE   CHUIST   IN   LIFE. 

personal  affront ?  When  a  rascal  threatens  to  hlow  out  my  neigh- 
bor's brains,  or  to  blast  his  character  by  infamous  accusations,  am 
/  in  a  position  to  forbear  and  pardon  ?  Must  I  not  own  myself 
under  a  solemn  trust,  to  see  the  right  done  and  the  guilty  pun- 
ished? .  .  .  <'Who  is  this  that  forgiveth  sins  also?''  The 
eternal  laws  of  justice  are  not  of  our  enacting;  and  no  will  of  ours 
has  title  to  suspend  or  to  repeal  them.  The  real  and  only  demand 
of  Christian  magnanimity  is,  that  we  visit  them  with  no  ven- 
geance, but  merely  with  moral  retribution.  .  .  Rulers  at  all 
events,  as  trustees  of  rights  other  than  their  own, — and  each  gen- 
eration of  a  people,  as  charged  with  the  interests  of  successors  in 
perpetuity, — have  but  a  limited  privilege  of  forbearance ;  the 
meekness  of  the  saints  would  in  them  be  treason  to  the  world. 
Even  in  international  disputes,  where  each  party  may  have  a  con- 
viction of  right,  the  controversy,  but  for  the  possibility  of  force, 
could  have  no  end.  It  is  a  delusion  to  rely  on  courts  as  a  substi- 
tute for  armies,  and  to  suppose  judicial  decision  can  supercede 
military. — yas  Martineau. — Ethics  of  Christendom. 

Forgiveness  of  an  unrepented  sin  would  be  as  contrary  to  mercy 
as  to  justice. — Murphy. 

In  His  tenderest  accents  of  mercy  there  is  always  blended  some 
reverberative  note  of  judgment;  as  it  there  was  a  voice  behind, 
saying,  "  behold,  therefore,  the  goodness — and  severity  of  God." 

The  tenderest,  purest  souls  will  be  hottest  in  the  wrath-principle, 
when  any  bitter  wrong,  or  shameful  crime,  is  committed.  They 
take  fire  and  burn,  because  they  feel.     .     .     . 

God,  without  the  wrath-principle,  never  was,  and  Christ  never 
can  be,  a  complete  character.  This  element  belongs  inherently 
to  every  moral  nature.  God  is  no  God  without  it,  man  is  no  man 
without  it.  .  .  .  This  principled  wrath  gives  staminal  force 
and  majesty  to  character.  It  is  in  this  principle  of  the  moral  na- 
ture that  it  becomes  a  regal  nature.  In  these  indignations  against 
wrong,  it  champions  the  right  and  judges  the  world. 

One  of  the  things  most  needed  in  the  recovery  of  men  to  God, 
is  this  very  thing;  a  more  decisive  manifestation  of  the  wrath- 
principle  and  justice  of  God.  Intimidation  is  the  first  means  of 
grace.  No  bad  mind  is  arrested  by  love  and  beauty,  till  such  time 
as  it  is  balked  in  evil  and  put  on  ways  of  thoughtfulness.     And 


NO  CONTRITION, — NO  REMISSION.  165 

nothing  will  be  so  effectual  for  this,  as  a  distinct  apprehension  of 
the  wrath  to  come. — Dr.  Bushnell. 

His  wrath  was  terrible,  and  it  did  not  evaporate  in  words.  But 
it  was  Christ-like  indignation.  With  those  who  were  weak, 
crushed  with  remorse,  fallen, — his  compassion,  long-suffering  and 
tenderness  were  as  beautiful  as  they  were  unfailing.  But  false- 
hood, hypocrisy,  the  sin  of  the  strong  against  the  weak,  stirred 
him  to  the  very  depths  of  his  being. — Memoirs  of  F.  W.  Robertson. 

Indignation  being  a  noble  and  divine  quality,  is  led  by  reason, 
and  is  the  servant  of  justice.  ...  I  cannot  conceive  beauty 
of  character  without  indignation  at  QvW.—Stopford  A.  Brooke. 

The  greatness  of  a  fault  depends  partly  on  the  nature  of  the 
person  against  whom  it  is  committed,  partly  upon  the  extent  of 
its  consequences.  Its  pardonableness  depends,  Jmmanly  speakingy 
on  the  degree  of  temptation  to  it,  ,  esteeming  those  faults 

greatest  which  are  committed  under  least  temptation. — Ruskin. — 
The  Punishment  of  Sin. 

With  many  minds,  .  .  .  the  undeniable  aspiration,  the  in- 
stinct, the  sentiment,  will  always  appear  sufficient  grounds  for  be- 
lieving in  Retribution,  Immortality  and  God.  Unquestionably, 
this  hunger  of  Humanity  is  an  integral  part  of  our  nature.  And, 
we  might  ask,  with  Aristotle,  shall  man's  appetition  be  in  vain? 
This  "deep-set  feeling,"  says  Dr.  Tyndall,'"  since  the  earliest 
dawn  of  history,  and  probably  for  ages  prior  to  all  history,  incor- 
porated itself  in  the  religions  of  the  world.  ...  To  yield  this 
sentiment  reasonable  satisfaction,  is  the  problem  of  problems  at 
the  present  hour.  .  .  .  It  is  vain  to  oppose  this  force,  with  a 
view  to  its  extirpation." — Wm.  Jackson. — Bam;pton  Lectures. 

Anger  and  indignation  against  cruelty  and  injustice,  resentment 
of  injuries,  desire  that  the  false,  the  ungrateful  and  the  depraved 
should  meet  with  punishment;  these,  if  not  in  themselves  virtuous 
feelings,  are,  at  least,  not  vicious.  .  .  .  What  would  be  a  crime 
in  a  private  man  to  do,  is  a  crime  in  a  magistrate  not  to  have  done : 
still  wider  is  the  difference  between  man  and  his  Maker.  ,  .  . 
Retributive  justice  is  the  very  attribute  under  which  God  is  pri- 
marily brought  to  us  in  the  teachings  of  our  natural  conscience. — 
J.  H.  Newman. — Gra?ntnar  of  Assent. 

The  reverence  for  human  life  is  carried  to  an  immoral  idolatry, 


iC)(\  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

when  it  is  held  more  sacred  than  justice  and  right,  and  when  the 
spectacle  of  blood  becomes  more  horrible  than  the  sight  of  desolat- 
ing tyrannies  and  triumphant  hypocrisies.  Life,  indeed,  is  just 
the  one  thing — the  reserved  capital,  the  rest,  the  ultimate  security 
— on  whose  disposability  in  the  last  resort,  and  on  the  free  control 
over  which,  the  very  existence  of  society  depends.  .  .  .  All 
law,  all  polity,  is  a  proclamation  that  justice  is  better  than  life, 
and,  if  need  be,  shall  over-ride  it  and  all  the  possessions  it  includes; 
and  nothing  can  be  weaker  or  more  suicidal  than  for  men  who  are 
citizens  of  a  commonwealth  to  announce  that,  for  their  part,  they 
mean  to  hold  life  in  higher  esteem  than  justice. — yas.  Martineau. 

The  right  of  self-preservation  is  involved  in  the  right  of  a  gov- 
ernment to  exist.  A  nation  thus  maintaining  its  existence,  is 
contending  not  merely  for  its  own  immediate  interests,  but  for  the 
common  right  upon  which  all  governments  must  stand.     .     .     . 

Benevolence  is  love,  a  disposition  to  benefit  and  bless;  and  this 
is  due  towards  enemies,  as  well  as  friends.  War  involves  violence 
and  evil  towards  enemies.  True,  and  so  does  the  punishment  of 
crime,  by  fine  or  imprisonment  or  death.  But  the  highest  benev- 
olence requires  the  punishment  of  crime,  and  the  officer  of  justice 
performs  a  benevolent  act  in  inflicting  the  penalty.  It  is  just  as 
consistent  with  a  benevolent  heart,  as  an  act  of  charity  or  mercy. 
To  save  a  nation  from  threatened  danger,  is  an  act  of  benevolence, 
and  the  patriotism  which  leads  one  to  risk  his  life  for  his  country, 
is  one  of  the  noblest  forms  of  virtue.  It  springs  naturally  and 
necessarily  from  love  to  God  and  love  to  man,  and  involves  no 
hatred  towards  the  enemy,  even  in  the  very  act  which  causes  his 
death.  The  responsibility  of  the  act  is  to  be  accepted,  as  a  stern 
and  awful  duty,  like  the  execution  of  the  sentence  of  the  law  upon 
a  criminal. 

The  evils  of  war  are  manifold  and  frightful  to  contemplate. 
They  come  in  such  forms,  and  are  so  concentrated,  as  to  be  appre- 
ciable to  the  dullest  apprehension  ;  but  the  evils  of  tyranny,  and 
oppression,  and  natural  degradation,  though  less  striking  in  form, 
affect  the  character  and  condition  of  every  individual,  and  endure 
through  generations. — Pair  child. — Moral  Philosophy. 

Non-resistance  is  absolutely  wrong.  We  may  not  carelessly 
abandon  our  rights.     We  may  not  give  away  our  birth-right  for 


NO  CONTRITION,— NO  REMISSION.  167 

the  sake  of  peace.  If  it  be  a  duty  to  respect  other  men's  claims, 
so  also  is  it  a  duty  to  maintain  our  own.  That  which  is  sacred  in 
their  persons  is  sacred  in  ours  also. — Herbert  Spencer. 

There  is  no  den  in  the  wide  world  to  hide  a  rogue.  Commit  a 
crime,  and  the  earth  is  made  of  glass.  Commit  a  crime,  and  it 
seems  as  if  a  coat  of  snow  fell  on  the  ground,  such  as  reveals  in 
the  woods  the  track  of  every  partridge  and  fox  and  squirrel  and 
mole.  You  cannot  recall  the  spoken  word,  you  cannot  wipe  out 
the  foot-track,  you  cannot  draw  up  the  ladder,  so  as  to  leave  no 
inlet  or  clew.  Some  damning  circumstance  always  transpires. 
The  laws  and  substances  of  nature — water,  snow,  wind,  gravita- 
tion— become  penalties  to  the  thief. — Emerson. 

The  terror  of  being  judged  sharpens  the  memory :  it  sends  an 
inevitable  glare  over  the  long-unvisited  past,  which  has  been  ha- 
bitually recalled  only  in  general  phrases.  Even  without  memory, 
the  life  is  bound  into  one  by  a  zone  of  dependence  in  growth  and 
decay ;  but  intense  memory  forces  a  man  to  own  his  blame- worthy 
part.  With  memory  set  smarting  like  a  re-opened  wound,  a  man's 
past  is  not  simply  a  dead  history,  an  outworn  preparation  of  the 
present:  it  is  not  a  repented  error  shaken  loose  from  the  life:  it  is 
a  still  quivering  part  of  himself,  bringing  shudders  and  bitter 
flavors  and  the  tinglings  of  a  merited  shame. — Middlemarck. 

A  crime  committed  by  an  individual  is  to  be  viewed  as  an  out- 
rage upon  himself,  and  the  doom  which  threatens  him  in  conse- 
quence is  not  a  mere  punishment  inflicted  by  a  foreign  hand,  but 
the  counterpart  of  his  own  deed. — Hegel. 

The  evil  doer  burns  by  his  own  deeds,  as  if  burnt  by  fire. — 
Singhalese  Sutra. 

The  power  for  evil,  which  inheres  in  sin,  never  dies,  except  with 
itself.  Sin  is  essentially  self-perpetuative.  Evil  in  a  soul  goes 
forth,  like  a  diseased  breath,  into  another  soul,  acts  on  it  insidious- 
ly, and  begets  new  sin  in  it.  The  second  breathes  infection  into  a 
third,  and  the  third  into  a  fourth.  In  ever-increasing  ratio,  the 
numbers  multiply  and  the  evil  spreads  indefinitely — eternally. 
No  atonement  (in  the  scholastic  sense),  no  expiation  of  sin,  can 
touch,  in  the  slightest  degree,  this  polluting,  corrupting  energy, 
which  lies  in  the  essential  nature  of  moral  evil. — yohn  Toung. 

It  is  not  the  inefficiency,  but  the  impossibility  of  due  penitence, 


168  THE  CHIUST  IN   LIFE. 

that  constitutes  our  fatal  disability ;  to  be  relieved  from  which,  we 
need  to  be  taken  out  of  ourselves,  to  be  identified  with  a  perfect 
Spirit;  our  humanity  must  cease  to  be  human,  and  become  one 
with  the  Divine  nature. — yas.  Mariineau. 

The  souls  of  some  men  are  already  honey-combed  through  anu 
through  with  the  eternal  consequences  of  neglect,  so  that,  taking 
the  natural  and  rational  view  of  their  case  just  noWy  it  is  simply 
inconceivable,  that  there  is  any  escapey«5/  nou\ — Driimniond. 

The  Divine  moral  government  .     .     implies  that  the  con 

sequence  of  vice  shall  be  misery  in  some  future  state,  by  the 
righteous  judgment  of  God. — Bishop  Butler. 

Nothing  seems  so  terrific  as  the  self-inflicted  torture  of  a  guilty 
conscience.  It  will  be  enough  to  fill  the  measure  of  his  woe,  that 
the  sinner  shall  be  left  to  himself, — that  he  shall  be  left  to  the  nat- 
ural consequences  of  his  wickedness.  In  the  Universe,  there  are 
no  agents  to  work  out  the  misery  of  the  soul  like  its  own  fell  pas- 
sions ;  not  the  fire,  the  darkness,  the  flood  or  the  tempest.  Noth- 
ing within  the  range  of  our  conceptions,  can  equal  the  dread 
silence  of  conscience,  the  calm  desperation  of  remorse,  the  corrod- 
ing of  ungratified  desire,  the  gnawing  worm  of  envy,  the  bitter- 
ness of  disappointment,  the  blighting  curse  of  hatred. — Orville 
Dewey. —  Universalist. 

What  is  called  Hell,  in  the  Scriptures,  is  a  world  of  misery  con- 
stituted by  the  complete  absence  of  God.  It  is  outer  darkness^ 
because  it  is  that  night  of  the  mind  which  overtakes  it,  when  it 
strays  from  God  and  His  light.  To  be  severed  eternally  from 
God's  inspiration  is  enough,  as  we  are  constituted,  to  seal  our  com- 
plete misery. — Dr.  Bushnell. 

Hell  is  the  infinite  terror  of  the  soul,  whatever  that  may  be.  . 
.  .  It  is  the  hell  of  having  done  wrong;  the  hell  of  having  had  a 
spirit  from  God  pure,  with  high  aspirations,  and  to  be  conscious 
of  having  dulled  its  delicacy,  and  degraded  its  desires;  the  hell  of 
having  quenched  a  light  brighter  than  the  sun's ;  of  having  done 
to  another  an  injury  that,  through  time  and  through  eternity, 
never  can  be  undone, — infinite,  maddening  remorse, — the  hell  of 
knowing  that  every  opportunity  of  good  has  been  lost  forever. 
This  is  the  infinite  terror ;  this  is  wrath  to  come. 

It  is  an  awful  thing  to  see  a  soul  in  ruins;  like  a  temple  which 


NO  OONTBITION,— NO  REMISSION.  169 

once  was  fair  and  noble,  but  now  lies  overthrown,  matted  with 
ivy,  weeds  and  tangled  briers,  among  which,  things  noisome  crawl 
and  live. — F   W  Robertson. 

Spiritual  laws  with  all  their  penalties  and  sanctions,  are  immedi- 
ately self-acting,  and  without  the  remotest  possibility  of  failure  or 
mistake. 

Life  is  indeed  probation,  but  the  judgment  that  decides  is  in  per- 
petual session  ;  not  for  one  moment  is  it  adjourned  ;  every  hour  it 
renders  the  awards  that  angels  fulfill ;  daily  and  forever  does  the 
Christ  of  humanity  judge  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  this 
present  life,  and  send  to  right  or  left  hand  destinies.  When  Christ 
speaks  of  eternal  life,  He  does  not  mean  future  endless  existence; 
this  may  be  involved,  but  it  is  an  inference  or  secondary  thought; 
He  means  fitness  or  perfection  of  life.  That  it  will  go  on  forever, 
is  a  matter  of  course,  but  it  is  not  the  important  feature  of  the 
truth. — Munger. — Freedom  of  Faith. 

Eternal  death  is  no  more  connected  with  time  than  eternal  life, 
but  is  essentially  that  state  of  darkness  and  sin,  whether  in  this 
world  or  the  future,  which  results  from  the  total  loss  of  the  knowl- 
edge and  love  of  God.  See  John  xvii:3.  I  John  v:ii-i2. — F. 
D.  Maurice. — Bib.  Sac.  ''6^. 

Eternal  death  does  not  signify  a  cessation  of  existence.  It  is  a 
continuance  of  existence  without  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God. 
It  is  the  opposite  of  eternal  life.  It  is  the  death — the  living  death 
of  the  spirit — which  becomes  withered,  paralyzed,  deformed,  de- 
graded, bestial  and  fiendish. — Triumph  of  Good  Over  Evil. 

In  the  matter  of  endless  punishment  for  sin,  society  does  in  its 
degree,  precisely  Avhat  Almighty  God  is  declared  in  the  Christian 
writings  to  do.  If  God  punishes  the  finally  impenitent  forever, 
man  does  the  same  thing,  and  does  it  necessarily — because  of  the 
demands  of  the  moral  universe  without,  as  well  as  the  exaction  of 
the  moral  principles  within.  In  other  words,  the  very  constitu- 
tion of  the  moral  universe  demands  and  necessitates  the  endless 
punishment  of  the  impenitent.     .     .     . 

Society  punishes.  ...  all  impenitent  offenders  against  its 
laws,  and  punishes  them  throughout  their  whole  lifetime.,  which  is 
as  much  of  eternity  as  its  retributive  influence  can  encompass.   In 


170  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

very  g^ave  cases,  indeed,  society  will  not  allow  the  penal  shadow 
to  pass  from  the  reputation  even  after  death. — Ecce  Dcus. 

The  "eternal"  does  not  in  essence  express  the  infinite  extension 
of  time,  but  the  absence  of  time;  not  the  omni-temporal  but  the 
supra-temporal,  the  life  of  the  world  to  come — of  that  age,  in  op- 
position to  the  life  of  this  age. —  Westcott. — Historic  Faith. 

"^^onian  life  has  in  it  no  thought  of  time,  but  is  altogether  an 
ethical  idea  or  characteristic." — Dr.  Haupt. 

Eternity  consists,  not  in  endlessness,  but  in  knowing,  seeing,  and 
loving  God.  "  Eternal  life,"  says  Erksine,  is  living  in  the  love  of 
God;  eternal  death  is  living  in  self;  so  that  a  man  may  be  in 
eternal  life  or  in  eternal  death  for  ten  minutes  as  he  changes  from 
one  state  to  the  other." 

Eternity  is  the  timeless  state. 

"  By  eternity,"  says  Spinoza,  "  I  understand  abstract  existence, 
eternal,  in  opposition  to  phenomenal." — Erksine. — Quoted  by 
Farrar. 

The  future  state  of  punishment  is  never  called  life ;  it  is  called 
condemnation  or  punishment,  or  death,  and  is  always  opposed  to 
life. — Scientific  Basts  of  Faith. — yoseph  John  Murphy. 

"  No  direct  infliction  is  required  to  produce  eternal  suffering," 
but  simply  the  abstinence  of  Divine  interposition  to  deliver  intelli- 
gent beings  from  the  sway  and  action  of  sin. — Triumph  of  Good 
Over  Moral  Evil. 

Aia)viO(;  implies  an  indefinite,  rather  than  an  infinite  duration, — 
a  completion  of  an  appointed  period,  rather  than  an  endless  suc- 
cession of  ages,— which  can  never  be  completed. — The  Spirits  in 
Prison.— E.  H.  Plumtre,  D.  D. 

A  man  iives  a  life  of  debauchery  .  ,  finds  delight  in  the  se- 
duction of  innocence.  .  .  He  afterwards  repents.  One  victim 
is  dead.  .  -  Another  has  learned  his  accursed  lesson.  .  .  Can 
his  repentance  save  the  dead  }  .  .  Can  it  recover  the  other,  sac- 
rificing new  victims  to /«.9  sin.?  .  .  The  tears  of  the  inurderer 
cannot  give  life  to  the  murdered.  .  .  The  repentance  of  the 
tempter  cannot  save  the  soul  sent,  stained, — lost  into  eternity.  .  . 
One  of  the  shallownesses  of  modern  religionism  is  in  losing  the 
vision  of  the  horrible  meaning  of  sin ;     .     .    because  the  vision  of 


NO  CONTRITION, — NO  REMISSION.  171 

God's  white  righteousness  is  lost,  men  are  content  with  half  re- 
pentance.^ — Church  'Journal. 

The  only  reason  why  human  penitence  does  not  in  itself  avail 
to  restore  lies  in  its  imperfect  purity  and  depth.  Through  the 
cloud  of  evil,  and  with  the  eye  of  self,  we  are  disqualified  for  true 
discernment  of  sin  as  it  is :  both  the  limits  of  a  finite  nature,  and 
the  delusions  of  a  tempted  and  fallen  one,  hinder  us  from  appre- 
ciating the  measure  of  our  guilt  and  misery.  Even  when  our  bet- 
ter mind  reasserts  itself,  our  very  compunction  carries  in  it  many 
a  speck  of  ill,  and  our  repentance  needs  to  be  repented  of.  But 
were  it  not  for  this,  there  would  be  "more  atoning  worth  in  one 
tear  of  the  true  and  perfect  sorrow  which  the  memory  of  the  past 
would  awaken,  than  in  endless  ages  of  penal  woe." — {Cr.  lost.) 

There  is  no  passage  in  which  it  is  said,  that  the  sin  of  thought  is 
equal  to  the  sin  of  act.  It  is  simply  said,  the  sin  of  act  may  be 
done  in  thought,  so  far  as  thought  goes.  Whether  it  is  equivalent 
to  an  act,  I  think,  entirely  depends,  as  I  said  before,  upon  the 
question  whether,  opportunity  and  safety  being  given,  it  is  carried 
into  action.  Where  these  are  not  actually  given  in  this  world, 
clearly,  only  God  knows,  whether  it  would  have  been  carried  into 
act. — F.  W.  Robertson. 

'Tis  one  thing  to  be  tempted, — 
Another  thing  to  fall. 

— Measure  for  Measure. 


If  you  aspire  to  be  a  son  of  consolation ;  if  you  ^vould  partake  of 
the  priestly  gift  of  sympathy ;  if  you  would  pour  something  be- 
yond common-place  consolation  into  a  tempted  heart;  if  you 
■would  pass  through  the  intercourse  of  daily  life  with  the  delicate 
tact  which  never  inflicts  pain  ;  if  to  that  most  acute  of  human  ail- 
ments, mentxil  doubt,  you  are  ever  to  give  effectual  succor, — you 
must  be  content  to  pay  the  price  of  the  costly  education.  Like 
Him,  you  must  suffer — being  tempted. — F.  W.  Robertson. 

We  are  sent  into  this  world  in  the  midst  of  a  blind,  confused 
jangle  of  natural  laws,  which  we  cannot  by  any  possibility  under- 
stand, and  which  cut  their  way  through  and  over  and  around  us. 
They  tell  us  nothing;  they  have  no  sympathy;  they  hear  no 
prayer ;  they  spare  neither  vice  nor  virtue.  And  if  we  have  no 
Friend  above  to  guide  us  through  the  labyrinth,  if  there  is  no 
Father's  heart,  no  helping  hand,  of  what  use  is  \iiQ?—Old  Town 
Folks. 

How  oft  do  they  their  silver  bowers  leave, 
To  come  to  succor  us  that  succor  want! 
How  oft  do  they  with  golden  pinions  cleave 
The  flitting  skies,  like  flying  pursuivant, 
Against  foul  fiends  to  aid  us  militant! 
They  for  us  fight,  they  watch  and  duly  ward, 
And  their  bright  squadrons  'round  us  plant; 
And  all  for  love  and  nothing  for  reward ; 
Oh,  why  should  heavenly  God  to  men  have  such  regard.? 

— Edmund  Speyicer. 

Rare  souls  there  are  who  live 

In  touch  with  all  things  just,  and  pure,  and  true. 
Sweet  love,  their  gracious  and  abiding  guest — 
Who  from  their  own  white  heights  grudge  not  to  give 
The  sinner  and  the  publican  their  due, 
Nor  care  to  judge  mankind  but  at  its  best. 

—  Unknown, 
aofinadri  eivat  rd  tivw  Tolq  xdzw — Maxim  oj  Persian  Magi. 


(xm 


CHAPTEE  lY. 


THE  CHEIST  OF  SYMPATHY. 

He  was  moved  with  compassion  for  them. — Mark  vi:j4. 

For  we  have  not  a  High  Priest  unable  to  sympathize  with  us  in 
our  afflictions,  but  One,  having  been  like  tried  in  all  things, — with- 
out sin. — Heb.  iv  :  ij. 

In  that,  He  Himself  being  tried  hath  suffered,  He  is  able  to 
succor  those  tried. — Heb.  it: i8. 

Who  comforteth  us  in  all  our  tribulations,  that  we  may  be  able 
to  comfort  others  in  every  tribulation,  through  the  comfort  where- 
with we  ourselves  are  comforted  by  God. — //  Cor.  1:4. 

The  Present  temporal  is  introductory  to  the  Future 
eternal.  It  is,  doubtless,  disciplinary  and  prepara- 
tory for  that  Becoming;  otherwise,  there  is  no  satis- 
factory explanation  of  its'  mystery,  and  men  might  be 
excusable  for  breaking  out,  under  the  frenzy  of  their 
suffering  experience,  into  imprecations  upon  the  day 
of  their  birth,  as  did  Job  and  Jeremiah.  If  there 
will  be  no  future  adjustment  of  its  inequalities,  of 
wrongs  inflicted,  cruelties  endured,  ills  and  evils  ex- 
perienced,— then  'tis  not  strange,  that  out  of  despair- 
fulness  comes  the  Epicurean  cry:  Let  us  eat  and 
drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die;  or  that  there  is  mad- 
dened haste  to  terminate  an  existence,  the  protraction 
of  which,  without  God  or  hope,  is  but  continuous 

sorrow. 

(n3) 


174  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

Seneca,  the  instructor  and  defender  of  the  monster 
Nero,  and  whose  ethics  are  often  referred  to  as  com- 
paring favorably  with  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  advised 
a  servile  retainer,  in  an  occupation  about  the  Imperial 
Court  considered  degrading,  as  follows:  "Wherever 
you  turn  your  eyes,  you  see  the  possible  end  of  your 
sufferings.  Here  is  a  precipice;  you  may  descend  it 
to  liberty.  There  is  the  sea,  a  river,  a  well;  freedom 
is  at  the  bottom.  Yonder  is  a  tree;  liberty  hangs 
from  its  bra'nches.  Here  is  your  heart;  pierce  it,  and 
you  are  free.  Are  such  deaths  as  these  too  painful? 
Do  they  demand  too  much  of  your  strength  and  reso- 
lution? Would  you  travel  towards  liberty  by  an 
easier  path?  Then,  every  vein  in  your  body  may 
open  the  way  to  it."  ^ 

But  men  are  not  left  in  darkness  or  uncertainty  on 
the  subject.  Jesus  has  brought  into  full  light  life 
eonian  through  His  Gospel.  Eternal  life  is  pledged 
to  those,  who  through  patience  in  well-doing  seek 
glory,  honor  and  incorruption.     Bom.  ii :  7. 

It  is  one  of  the  merciful  alleviations,  perhaps  the 
mercifulest  of  this  trial  state,  that  sympathy  is  as- 
sured to  us  in  every  step  of  the  tragic  way,  from 
God  and  angels,  the  Christ-like  on  earth  and  the 
glorified  in  Heaven — themselves  having  passed 
through  great  tribulation, —  to  strengthen,  comfort 
and  stimulate.  More:  the  Christian  believer  is  as- 
sured he  has  an  Intercessor — by  Hebrew  analogy  and 
figure,  for  a  better  apprehension  of  the  all-compas- 
sionate nature  of  God, — Who,  in  His  human  manifes- 
tation, having  gone  down  to  the  possible  depths  of 

I.     Seneca. — De  Tranquil itate. 


SYMPATHY — THE  FIRST-BORN  OF  LOVE.  175 

human  trial,  is  thus  doubly  made  able  to  sympathize 
with  him  to  the  uttermost. 

Sympathy  is  emotion  arising  from  the  endeavored 
putting  of  one's  self  in  the  state  of  another,  and  as  if 
one  were  the  person  himself.  It  is  born  of  Love — its 
first-born.  No  one  ever  loves  who  does  not  sympa- 
thize to  the  fullest  extent  with  the  beloved.  The 
emotion  is  keen  and  intense  according  to  the  capacity 
for  joy  or  sorrow.  It  is  most  often  manifested  for 
those  in  suffering,  material,  physical,  mental  or  spir- 
itual. For  illustration,  therefore,  it  becomes  neces- 
sary to  specify  representative  cases  of  persons,  extra- 
ordinary and  common  events.  The  degree  of  its 
manifestation  for  those  in  propitious  condition,  favor- 
ing circumstances,  is  rarely  higher  than  congratula- 
tion;— it  is  supposed  they  need  no  more. 

Jesus,  the  Divine  Father  in  manifestation,  sways 
men,  not  only  by  His  wonderful  discourse  and  man- 
ner of  it.  His  mighty  works.  His  geniality  and  un- 
selfishness. His  prayers  and  holy  life,  but  by  His 
unutterable  sympathy.  It  is  an  ocean,  shoreless, 
fathomless, — a  well  of  joy  springing  up  in  all  trustful 
souls  to  eternal  blessedness.  On  this  fact,  the  Apostle 
predicated  his  exhortations  to  believers  to  come  with 
boldness  to  the  throne  of  the  Heavenly  Grace,  that 
they  may  receive  strength  out  of  the  consciousness  of 
His  sympathy — adequate  to  cope  with  evil  forces. 
Every  Christian  will  have  his  antagony  in  some  wil- 
derness, and  his  tussle  in  Gethsemane  with  the  DeviL 
He  is,  it  is  believed,  a  person, — not  a  co-ordinate  but 
a  subordinate  spirit,  as  is  impressively  taught  in  the 
Bible,  and  all  experience  confirms, — potent,  subtle, 


176  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

malignant.  To  ruin  is  his  business,  astounding  nncl 
incomprehensible  as  is  the  permission  given.  Doubt- 
less, not  otherwise  would  souls  become  sturdy  and 
puissant,  save  through  conflict  and  resistance, — made 
able  to  cope  successfully  with  all  malevolent,  mal- 
eficient  powers.  If  any  succumb  and  are  overborne, 
and  perish  in  the  struggle,  it  will  be  because  they  did 
not  clothe  themselves  with  the  complete  panoply  of 
God,  as  enjoined,  that  they  might  be  made  able  to 
stand.  Overthrow  and  death  eonian  are  possible  in 
the  exercise  of  free  will.  God  did  not  make  men 
puppets,  but  in  His  image,  sovereigns  in  their  spheres. 

The  first  Act  of  the  grand  Tragedy  opened  in  the 
Garden.  Through  all  its  subsequent  scenes,  he  has 
been  seen  to  move,  the  prime,  conspicuous  Tragedian. 

Job  was  a  representative  man,  and  his  trials,  as 
were  those  of  Jesus,  were  representative.  His  was, 
doubtless,  a  real  life,  dramatized  perhaps,  with  some 
embellishment  for  the  profit  of  the  human  family. 
For  an  intelligent,  specified  purpose,  he  was  delivered 
for  a  season  to  the  tests  of  the  Tempter.  The  Satanic 
One  first  drew  a  wall  of  circumvallation  around  him, 
involving  him  in  the  meshes  of  human  helplessness, 
then  commenced  his  infernal  appliances,  culminating 
in  the  cyclone  of  assault.  It  was  such  a  succession 
and  cumulation  of  calamities,  spiritual  and  material, 
one  after  another,  as  rarely,  if  ever,  fell  upon  the  head 
of  any  other  known  one,  save  Jesus,  in  so  brief  a 
time.  The  Devil  had  a  great  soul  to  grapple  with; 
and  he  summoned  all  his  available  resources  for  the 
hell-storm.  Now,  such  like,  more  or  less,  will  at 
some  period  be  hurled  from  some  invisible  height,  or 


THE  TEMPTATIONS  OF  JESUS  REPKESENTATIVE.     177 

out  of  some  spiritual  ambush,  upon  the  defenceless 
head  of  the  child  of  God,  when  he  least  expects  and 
is  least  prepared  for  them.  Whence  is  help  in  such 
an  hour?  What  would  become  of  the  helpless  one,  if 
there  was  no  one  able  to  sympathize, — adequate  to 
help  in  such  time  of  need, — to  impart  strength,  to 
give  victory  in  such  a  juncture? 

That  formal  notice  might  be  given  to  all,  whoever 
would  believe  and  trust  in  Him, — the  Christ  in  God, — 
He  would  be  their  Sympathizer,  Helper  and  Interces- 
sor, as  He  was  their  Savior;  He  grappled  with  represen- 
tatives of  all  possible  trials;  went  down  with  the  tried 
to  the  last  depths  of  despair, — to  darkness, — the  pe- 
numbra of  the  blackness  of  darkness  forever;  en- 
countered sorties  out  of  Gehenna  itself.  From  Geth- 
semane  to  the  Cross  came  the  last  crucial  test,  when, 
in  flickering  moments,  existence  seemed  a  burden; 
death,  relief;  annihilation,  even,  a  boon. 

Every  child  of  God  will  have  his  Gethsemane,  when 
calamity  will  pour  upon  him  as  a  flood,  when  trouble 
of  a  mental  or  spiritual  character,  or  both  combined, 
will  come  to  overwhelm  him.  It  will  be  conflict  in 
darkness.  All  the  demons  in  the  Universe  will  seem 
to  be  howling  about  him.  It  will  be  the  issue  the 
Devil  makes  with  every  believer. 

Jesus — God — still  manifest  through  Him,  can  sym- 
pathize with  any  in  such  extremity.  He  is  able.  He 
can  succor,  and  He,  in  the  extreme  hour,  will  deliver 
from  the  Hell-storm  of  infernal  forces,  and  bring  out 
unharmed,  with  not  a  hair  singed  or  a  garment 
scorched,  with  not  even  the  smell  of  infernal  fire  on 

12 


178  THE   CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

them.     After  the  Trial,  shall  come  the  angels,  as  they 
did  to  Him. 

The  approaches  to,  and  the  assaults  upon  the  Son 
of  God  were  the  climax  of  Satanic  tact  and  cmming. 
They  succeeded  an  extraordinary  fast,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  His  gi'and  public  life,  when  visions  of 
earthly  glory  might  be  supposed  to  be  unfolding  be- 
fore Him;  when  the  Hebrews  as  a  nation,  and  those 
who  had  begun  to  have  faith  in  Him,  entertained  just 
precisely  the  opposite  anticipations  of  His  reign  that 
they  should.  The  Devil  stole  upon  Him  as  a  mes- 
senger from  the  skies.  And  of  this,  we  are  ever  to  be 
fore-apprised,  that  he  "tkansforms  himself"  into 
an  angel  of  light,  as  the  original  has  it.  And  we  must 
recognize  the  presence  of  the  Tempter,  by  the  nature 
of  the  suggestion. 

"If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  command  that  these 
stones  be  made  bread,"  and  thus  prove  to  the  world 
that  Thou  art  He,  whom  Thou  claimest  to  be.  The 
Devil  needed  no  proof  of  His  divine  origin.  He  knew 
He  was  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  Savior  knew  the 
Devil  knew  it.  He  did  not,  as  He  never  would,  grat- 
ify an  idle  curiosity,  much  less  subserve  a  wicked 
purpose.  He  was  to  endure  the  diabolic  test  to  the 
end.  He  was  not  for  an  instant  to  distrust  God.  He 
must  live,  by  Faith.  He  recognized  the  presence  of 
the  Tempter,  whether  or  not  he  was  personally  vis- 
ible in  his  stolen  garb.  He  recognized  his  presence 
by  the  nature  of  the  suggestion, — the  character  of  the 
temptation.  No,  said  He:  It  is  written:  "Man  shall 
not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  pro- 
ceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God."     This  we  recog- 


THE  CLIMAX  OF  SATANIC  ASSAULT.  179 

nize  as  a  representative  of  a  class  of  temptations,  to 
which  believers  are  specially  exposed,  viz.,  to  distrust 
God  in  the  crises  of  material  or  spiritual  peril. 

Is  one  tempted  to  get  bread  by  unlawful  means,  at 
the  expense  of  truth,  honor,  integrity, — all  that  is 
priceless  in  the  soul  of  a  man  ?  Is  conscience  put  to 
the  worst  by  self,  when  it  mutters  against  its  remon- 
strances, its  monitions,  its  entreaties :  I  have  money 
invested  in  this  business?  "  What  shall  I  do  for  the 
hundred  talents  ?  "  And  is  the  response  of  conscience 
ineffectual  ? — "  The  Lord  is  able  to  give  thee  much 
more  than  this."  II  Chron.  xxv:9.  Jesus  has  encoun- 
tered it,  and  He  sends  up  the  potent  response  in  the 
extreme  hour :  I  have  been  with  thee  in  six  troubles. 
I  will  surely  be  with  thee  in  the  seventh.  Job  v:  19. 
The  life  is  more  than  meat.  The  body  is  more  than 
raiment.  My  Father  feeds  the  birds  of  the  air  and 
clothes  the  grass  of  the  field.  Ye  are  of  more  value 
than  they.  Then  shall  He  much  more  feed  and  clothe 
you.  Matth.  vi.  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone. 
The  Just  shall  live  by  Faith.  Kom.  i:  17.  Thus  met, 
for  a  season  will  depart  the  Great  Adversary.  Is  one 
moved  to  incur  unlawful  risks  in  secular  or  spiritual 
enterprises,  for  the  accomplishment  of  even  a  good 
end;  to  employ  ostentatious  instrumentalities,  instead 
of  the  simple  means  prescribed  by  his  Master  for 
the  extension  of  His  Kingdom?  Jesus  has  been 
taken  to  the  pinnacle  of  this  human  rashness  and 
foUy.  It  was  proposed,  or  suggested,  that  in  un- 
authorized reliance  on  the  care  of  His  Father,  He 
cast  Himself  down,  and  thus  give  to  the  crowd  below 
that  "sign"  which  they  sought  from  Him,  in  attesta- 


180  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

tion  of  His  Messiahship.  "He  will  give  His  angels 
charge  concerning  Thee.  On  their  hands  they  shall 
bear  Thee  up,  lest  Thou  be  dashed  upon  the  stones," 
suggested  the  Devil.  Jesus  met  the  enemy  promptly : 
"Thou  shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God."  Thus 
met,  shall  discomfiture  come  to  the  Seducer.  Is  one 
led  to  regard  Christian  principle.  Christian  profes- 
sion as  secondary  in  importance, — to  turn  his  back 
upon  them,  when  they  stand  in  the  way  of  material 
acquisition,  of  social,  professional  or  political  advance- 
ment? Is  a  soul  in  that  fearful  position,  when  it  is 
tempted  to  barter  its  inheritance  for  a  mess  of  pot- 
tage,— renounce  Christian  obligation,  recant  solemn 
vows,  perjure  itself  in  the  presence  of  God,  angels 
and  men,  for  the  sake  of  Mammon?  Jesus  was  taken 
to  the  "exceedingly  high  mountain"  of  this  trial. 
Thus,  probably,  was  He  somewhat  assailed  :- 

If  Thou  veritably  he  the  Son  of  God,  turn  from  Thy 
proposed  life  among  the  lowly,  Thy  mission  to  the 
poor,  because  the  Sanctities,  the  Eich,  the  Powerful 
among  men  will  reject  Thee.  Thinkest  Thou  art  able 
to  cope  with  the  hierarchy?  Prophets  and  saints  be- 
fore Thee  have  gone  down  before  it  in  the  contest. 
Such  course  will  inevitably  culminate  in  a  violent, 
excruciating  end.  Turn  to  a  life  worthy  of  what 
should  be  the  lofty  ambition  of  the  Son  of  God,  and 
which  will  achieve,  much  more  speedily  and  effect- 
ually, the  object  for  which  Thou  did'st  come  to  dwell. 
Divine  Man,  in  the  midst  of  men.  Get  power,  and 
place,  and  especially  money.  Accommodate  Thyself 
to  the  prejudices  of  Thy  countrymen,  and  to  their 
carnal  expectations.     Put  Thyself  at  the  head  of  the 


THE  LAST  ASSAULT.  181 

populace,  and  sweep  the  Komans  from  the  land. 
Make  Thy  will  sovereign  over  all  other  wills.  'Stablish 
an  empire  over  the  minds  of  men,  by  outward  show, 
by  statute  law,  or  by  irresponsible  despotism,  as 
circumstances  require.  Force  men  to  believe  on  Thee! 
It  was  the  grand,  the  final  charge.  But  in  vain. 
"Away  Tempter."  "Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord 
thy  God,  and  Him  only  shalt  thou  serve."  This 
Scripture  met  him, 

nor  more :  but  fled 


Murmuring,  and  with  him  fled  the  shades  of  nightx 

Then  angels  came.  Thus  always, — the  enemy  suc- 
cessfully resisted  and  routed,  come  the  angels  of  hope, 
consolation  and  inspiration.     "  Fiends  " 

"  Are  baffled  and  beaten  by  " 
"  A  dauntless  human  will."2 

Poor  Peter,  on  the  announcement  of  his  Master 
that  suffering  and  death  awaited  Him  on  his  going  to 
Jerusalem,  presumptuously  took  Him  aside  and  un- 
dertook to  remonstrate  familiarly,  and  we  must  sup- 
pose, affectionately  and  with  good  intent.  Be  it  far 
from  Thee,  Lord.  This  shall  not  happen  unto  Thee. 
Matth.  xvi:  22.  Peter  did  not  anticipate  Gethsemane, 
the  Judgment  Hall  and  the  Cross,  where  his  perjury 
in  denial  of  his  Master  would  be  so  conspicuous. 

Back  through  the  form  of  the  fervid  and  impetuous 

1.  Paradise  Lost. 

2.  Kathrina. — Holland. 

Baffled  shall  the  Tempter  flee, 
And  God's  angels  come  to  thee. 

— Swedish, 


182  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

Galilean  whom  He  had  previously  pronounced 
"blessed,"  the  Savior  discerned  the  Tempter,  foul, 
malignant,  hateful,  and  cried:  Avaunt!  Get  thee 
behind  me.  Thou  art  an  offense.  Thou  art  con- 
cerned about  the  human,  not  the  Divine.  Thus  has 
the  great  enemy  met  God's  people  in  all  ages,  and 
been  most  successful,  as  he  has  always  been  with 
false  religionists. 

It  is  a  sad  revelation  in  history,  that  under  the  spur 
of  such  enticement,  real  or  professed  children  of 
God,  when  they  had  the  power,  attempted  to  force 
others  to  conform  to  their  dogmas,  as  did  regal  idol- 
ators  before  them.  To  the  three  faithful  Hebrews  the 
cry  was,  Conform  or  Burn.  Soon  after  the  ascension 
of  the  Master,  the  cry  from  professed  disciples  was, 
Conform  or  Burn.  Every  organization  secular  or  re- 
ligious, outside  of  the  local  churches,  has  had  its  des- 
pot or  pope,  who  has  cried  out  to  the  non-conforming 
ones  within  its  range,  Conform  or  Burn. 

True,  the  modern  fire  is  spiritual  in  lieu  of  ma- 
terial,— it  is  a  holocaust  of  souls,  instead  of  bodies. 
No  less  hot  has  been  the  fire.  All  such  methods  are 
not  only  unchristlike,  but  diabolic.  If  truly  Christ- 
ian, such  should  have  cried  out:  Avaunt,  Tempter! — 
Spirit  of  Evil!  Truth  prevails  through  love,  not  hate; 
— suasion,  not  force. 

Often  has  Satan  whispered,  if  not  formally  and 
earnestly  remonstrated  through  a  bosom  friend,  af- 
fectionate wife  or  darling  child,  to  one  when  about  to 
consecrate  himself  to  some  holy  work.  Do  not  peril 
your  comfort,  health  and  life, — the  dearest  interests 
of  those  whom  you  love — dependent  upon  you.     Why 


USE  OF  FBIENDS  FOR  TEMPTATION.  183 

will  you  abandon  us,  cries  a  father,  or  a  mother,  or 
husband,  or  wife,  or  child? 

Doubtless,  Satan  employs  dearest  friends,  as  he  did 
Peter,  to  convey  temptation.     Look  then  upon  them 
affectionately,  and  cry  for  strength  to  say,  as  did  Paul 
to  the  endeared  ones  who  endeavored  to  dissuade  him 
"from  going  up  to  Jerusalem,"  having  been  foreap- 
prised  what  would  befall  him  there:     "What  mean 
ye  to  weep,  and  to  break  my  heart?  for  I  am  ready, 
not  only  to  be  bound,  but  to  die  at  Jerusalem  m  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.     Or,  if  nature  shrinks  fi^om 
the  costliest  sacrifice,  and  the  heart  strings  are  crack- 
ing, take  sweetly  but  firmly,  those  jewels  of  love  m 
thine  hand,  and  pass  them  over  to  the  keeping  of  trust- 
worthy Providence,  and  say  as  once  did  a  missionary 
mother:     "This  I  do  for  Christ."  '  If  the  crisis  and 
the  issue  require  a  sterner  and  a  firmer  tone,  turn  to 
the  Tempter,  back  through  the  remonstrating  or  the 
weeping  loved  one,  and  say,  Away!  thou  art  a  stumb- 
ling block  in  my  way  to  heaven.     Said  Bishop  Lat- 
imer in  a  sermon  before  Edward  VL:   ''Here  is  a 
goodly  lesson  for  you,  my  friends.     It  ever  you  come 

into  danger,  in  prison,  for  God's  quarrel,  and  for  His 

I.  Missionaries,  to  whom  God  has  given  children,  are  not 
ordinarily  called,  it  is  believed,  by  Him,  to  cast  them  upon  the 
cold  charities  ol  the  world,  to  leave  them  in  the  struggle  for  ex- 
istence in  the  hands  of  strangers,  thousands  of  miles  distant  from 
them,  without  a  father's  guidance,  and  a  mother's  love  daily  mmis- 
tered  for  their  right  development;  nor  can  such  abandonment  of 
one's  offspring,  it  is  believed,  be  the  highest  manifestation  of 
Christliness.  The  stamp  of  sadness,  of  isolation  and  orphanage 
upon  the  countenances  of  such  has  been  painful  to  discern.  Their 
souls  are  as  precious  as  those  of  the  heathen. 


184  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

Bake,  I  will  advise  you  first,  and  above  nil  things  to 
abjure  all  your  friends,  all  your  friendships,  leave  not 
one  unabjured;  it  is  they  that  shall  undo  you,  and  not 
your  enemies." 

Sir  Thomas  More's  wife  begged  and  entreated  that  he  would 
yield.  It  was  only  a  small  point.  Many  bishops  and  other 
Church  dignitaries  had  done  it,  and  surely  he,  a  layman,  might  do 
it.  It  might  be  done  quietly,  and  the  king  would  gladly  meet  him 
half  way  ;  and,  besides,  what  harm  could  it  be  to  him  to  seem  to 
acquiesce?  "Ah!  my  dear  wife,"  said  he;  "it  might  mislead 
many  simple  souls."  But  she  urged ;  "  How  happy  we  may  be 
for  at  least  twenty  years  more,  in  our  charming  house  and  de- 
lightful grounds  by  the  river's  side  at  Richmond,  if  thou  wilt  but 
say  one  word."  "Yes,  my  dear  wife;  but  what  are  twenty  years 
in  comparison  of  eternity  .!*  And  how  could  I  enjoy  life,  as  thou 
sayest,  if  I  had  done  an  unworthy  action?" 

And  his  daughter  Margery,  dearly  beloved,  threw  herself  upon 
his  bosom,  with  her  arms  about  his  neck,  sobbing  and  with  many 
tears.  "  Ah!  dear  Maggy,"  said  the  father,  "why  dost  thou  try 
me  and  break  my  heart?  Wouldst  thou  have  me  do  this  thing 
that  I  may  live  a  few  years  longer  in  the  enjoyment  of  worldly 
pleasure?"  "No,  dear  father,  I  would  gladly  give  my  life  for 
thine;  but  I  would  not  have  thee  do  an  unworthy  action  to  save 
thee  from  a  hundred  deaths."  "  Oh!  dear  Maggy,  there  spoke  the 
true  heart.  Thou  art,  indeed,  my  daughter ;  dearer  to  me  than 
life." 

"  I  saw  what  was  coming,"  said  Banyan.  ...  "I  was 
made  to  see,  that  if  I  would  suffer  rightly,  I  must  pass  sen- 
tence of  death  upon  everything  that  can  properly  be  called  a  thing 
of  this  life,  even  to  reckon  myself,  my  wife,  my  children,  my 
health,  my  enjoyments  all  as  dead  to  me,  and  myself  as  dead  to 
them.  Yet  I  was  a  man  compassed  with  infirmities.  The  part- 
ing with  my  wife  and  poor  children  hath  oft  been  to  me  in  this 
place,  as  the  pulling  of  my  flesh  from  my  bones ;  and  that  not  only 
because  I  am  too,  too  fond  of  these  great  mercies,  but  also  because 
I  should  have  often  brought  to  my  mind  the  hardships,  miseries, 


VERITABLE  TRIALS  IN  HUMAN  EXPERIENCE.        185 

and  wants  mj  poor  family  was  like  to  meet  with,  should  I  be  taken 
from  them,  especially  my  poor  blind  child,  who  lay  nearer  my 
heart  than  all  I  had  besides.  Poor  child,  thought  I,  what  sorrow 
art  thou  like  to  have  for  thy  portion  in  this  world !  Thou  must  be 
beaten,  suffer  hunger,  cold,  nakedness,  and  a  thousand  calamities, 
though  I  can  not  now  endure  the  wind  should  blow  on  thee.  But 
jet,  thought  I,  I  must  venture  all  with  God,  though  it  goeth  to 
the  quick  to  leave  you.  I  was  as  a  man  who  was  pulling  down 
his  house  upon  the  heads  of  his  wife  and  children.  Yet,  thought 
I,  I  must  do  it — I  must  do  it.  .  ,  .  'Twas  my  duty  to  stand  to 
His  Word,  whether  He  would  ever  look  upon  me  or  not,  or  save 
me  at  the  last.  Wherefore,  thought  I,  the  point  being  thus,  I  am 
for  going  on  and  venturing  my  eternal  state  with  Christ,  whether 
I  have  comfort  here  or  not.  If  God  doth  not  come  in,  thought  I, 
I  will  leap  off  the  ladder,  even  blindfold  into  eternity,  sink  or 
swim,  come  heaven,  come  hell.  Lord  Jesus,  if  Thou  wilt  catch 
me,  do ;  if  not,  /  xvill  venture  for  Thy  namey 

These  be  all  veritable,  palpable  in  the  experience 
of  believers; — by  no  means  to  be  resolved  into  the 
terrors  of  a  diseased  brain,  the  demons  of  a  disordered 
imagination.  There  be  tragedies  of  this  sort  enacted 
daily  in  the  interior  life,  while  the  exterior,  through 
the  roar  of  the  material,  moves  on.  One  toils,  a  slave 
yoked  to  his  daily  task,  the  year  round,  while  there 
is  raging  inward  this  conflict  of  antagonistic  spiritual 
forces,  this  restless  tug  and  tussle,  this  life  and 
death  grapple  of  his  inner,  perhaps  his  renewed  na- 
ture, with  all  the  powers  of  darkness,  headed  by  the 
Evil  One, — a  superhuman  pull  of  the  poor  soul  to 
Heaven,  and  a  ghastly  pull  of  it  to  Gehenna.  If  the 
poor  assaulted  one  has  heeded  specifically  the  admo- 
nition to  clothe  himself  with  the  complete  panoply  of 
God,  it  is  well:   otherwise,  it  is  not  well:  it  is  evil  of 


186  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

the  terriblest  kind.  The  odds  are  fearful.  On  one 
side  is  the  Adversary, 

"  Fierce  as  ten  Furies,  terrible  as  Hell ; " 

on  the  other,  a  weak  human  soul.  No  unpanoplied 
one  can  stand.  The  defenseless  is  doomed  to  be  lost. 
Scoff  and  defy,  as  thou  choosest,  unbeliever !  there  is 
no  hope  for  thee  or  others,  outside  of  saving  Grace. 
Souls  move  on  two  ways  only — towards  God,  or  away 
from  Him;  to  Paradise  or  Gehenna.  There  is  no 
horizontal  journey  through  eternity.  It  is  upward  or 
downward.  Soul !  art  thou  thus  panoplied,  that  thou 
may'st  be  able  to  stand,  "  and,  having  done  all,  to 

STAND?" 

There  be  other  trials,  that  need  not  be  referred  to 
Satanic  origin.  They  may  come  directly  from  the 
Father  in  some  evident  but  incomprehended  Prov- 
idence, or  indirectly  through  some  human  instru- 
mentality. Whom  the  Lord  loves.  He  chastens,  and 
scourges  every  soul  whom  He  receives.  "  As  many 
as  I  love,  I  rebuke  and  chasten."  God's  sovereignty 
over  the  intelligences  of  His  universe  is  as  supreme 
and  particular  as  over  matter  in  gross  and  in  atoms. 
Unbelievers  in  all  ages  rebel  against  such  assertions  of 
God's  prerogative,  as  they  have  against  the  revela- 
tions of  the  existence  of  a  personal  Tempter,  conflict- 
ing with  their  notions  of  personal  freedom  and  ac- 
countability. 

The  believer  often  finds  his  favorite  plans,  his 
darling  purposes  thwarted,  achievement  in  his  self- 
determined  career  prevented  by  insuperable  obstacles. 
In  no  one  of  them  does  he  succeed,  though  there  has 


THE  BABBIERS  OF  PROVIDENCE.  187 

been  no  lack  of  sagacious  planning,  of  wise  forecast, 
of  untiring  energy,  and  of  unremitting  industry. 
This  has  been  the  plaint  of  the  good  in  all  ages.  Job 
said:  My  way  He  hath  hedged  up,  so  that  I  cannot 
pass,  and  in  my  path  he  hath  placed  darkness.  Thou 
putteth  my  feet  in  the  stocks,  and  Thou  watcheth  all 
my  paths.  Upon  the  soles  of  my  feet  Thou  dost  set 
a  print.  When  He  giveth  rest,  who  then  can  make 
trouble?  and  when  He  hideth  His  face,  who  then  can 
behold  Him  ?  and  this  in  respect  to  a  nation  and  an 
individual  alike.  David  said:  I  am  shut  up  and  I 
cannot  come  forth.  Jeremiah:  He  hath  builded 
against  me  and  compassed  me  with  gall  and  travail. 
He  hath  set  me  in  dark  places,  as  they  that  be  dead 
of  old.  He  hath  hedged  me  about,  that  I  cannot  get 
out.  He  hath  made  my  chain  heavy.  He  hath  in- 
closed my  ways  in  hewn  stone.  He  hath  made  my 
ways  crooked. 

"He  shutteth  up  a  man,  and  there  is  no  opening." 
A  man  must  achieve  what  God  has  ordained  him  to 
do,  if  he  has  to  be  shut  up  to  do  it,  and  he  cannot  do 
anything  else.  He  may  be  restive  under  the  restraint 
and  compulsion  in  the  web  of  which  God  has  woven 
him ;  he  may  endeavor  to  break  out  from  it,  and  to  do 
something  else  which  his  own  heart  desires;  but  it 
will  be  in*  vain.  God  builds  over  against  him,  and 
encloses  him  in  walls  more  impenetrable,  infrangible 
than  granite  or  steel.  If  he  be  a  man  of  God,  and 
He  has  commissioned  him  to  do  a  certain  work,  and  he 
undertakes  to  do  anything  else,  to  run  away  from 
duty,  God  will  have  him  tumbled  overboard  by  his 
fellow  mariners, — engulfed  in  the  sea  of  some  mon- 


188  THE  CHRIST   IN  LIFE. 

strous  trouble,  if  need  be, — to  be  disciplined  into 
obedience. 

The  declaration  of  the  Master  to  His  disciples  was 
and  is:  To  each  and  every  one  are  imparted  gifts, 
means  and  opportunities.  Matth.  xxv:15,  I  Cor.  xii: 
11,  Mark  xiii :  34  Be  occupied  in  their  improvement 
until  I  come  (Luke  xix:13),  so  that,  when  I  summon 
you  to  reckoning  of  stewardship,  I  may  receive  My 
own, — value  enhanced  by  use.  But,  to  many  con- 
scientious,— to  those  who  would,  with  the  most  scru- 
pulous fidelity,  perform  the  duty  and  discharge  the 
trust,  experience  has  been  painful  and  bewildering. 
Whenever  the  votive  offering  was  ready,  and  the  door 
for  consecration  sought,  it  was  found  barred. 
"Barred!"  The  word  is  inadequate  for  expression. 
The  barriers  are  adamantine,  for  they  are  the  harriers 
of  God's  providence.  Some  might  affirm,  for  expla- 
nation, that  the  devotee  mistook  the  character,  kind 
or  quality  of  his  offering  required;  that  there  was 
ambition  to  offer  gift,  of  which  there  was  not  consti- 
tutional or  gracious  endowment,  instead  of  the  one  in 
fact  possessed.  Doubtless,  this  has  often  been  true. 
But  there  have  been  perplexities  in  other  cases,  which 
could  not  thus  be  solved.  The  poor  soul  had  its 
aspirations  based  on  recognized  ability  and  qualifica- 
tion. It  honestly,  earnestly  sought  the  light  and 
guidance  of  the  Spirit.  If  such  bewildered  soul  can- 
not rely  on  such  indications,  and  in  the  use  of  such 
means,  on  what  can  it? 

There  is  a  special  mystery  among  the  most  incom- 
prehensible. Often  has  it  been,  that  certain  have 
been  successful  in  the  earthlies,  when  sudden  calamity 


SOLUTION  OF  MYSTERIES  IN  THE  FUTURE.         189 

tumbled  upon  them:  it  may  have  been  a  conflagration, 
a  panic,  the  bankruptcy  or  the  dishonesty  of  debtors; 
and  acquisitions  were  gone.  Courage,  energy  and  en- 
terprise were  summoned  once  more  to  the  breach, 
with  like  successful  results,  when  dire  calamity  came 
again.  Thrice  or  more  have  been  the  same  bitter  ex- 
periences during  a  score  or  less  of  years,  until  the 
prime  and  the  strength  of  life  have  past.  Hast  thou 
not  encountered  such,  as  they  staggered  onward  in 
the  way?  They  had  gifts,  inherent  energy,  restless, 
untiring  industry,  aspirations,  perhaps  culture;  were 
by  no  means  incautious  or  insagacious;  had  observed 
conditions  of  material  prosperity,  in  diligence,  integ- 
rity, reliability  in  word  and  deed.  In  God's  name, 
what  must  they  do?  Must  they  not  occupy  till  their 
Master  calls?  Was  not  the  command  designed  to 
press  on  them,  as  on  all?  What  must  such  do?  It 
seems,  there  is  no  place  for  them  but  in  the  grave,  as 
it  seemed  to  Job. 

In  such  bewilderment,  in  such  darkness,  there  re- 
mains the  hope  that  there  will  be  a  future  solution  of 
such  contradictions,  irreconcilables,  and  of  such  mys- 
teries; otherwise,  'twould  not  be  strange,  if  men 
questioned  whether  "life  is  worth  living."  There  is 
such  a  Becoming. 

Some  time,  when  all  life's  lessons  have  been  learned, 

And  sun  and  stars  forevermore  have  set, 
The  things  vi^hich  our  w^eak  judgment  here  has  spurn'd, 

The  things  o'er  which  we  griev'd  with  lashes  wet, 
Will  flash  before  us  out  of  life's  dark  night. 

As  stars  shine  most  in  deeper  tints  of  blue ; 
And  we  shall  see  how  all  God's  plans  were  right, 

And  how  what  seemed  reproof  was  love  most  true. 


If  we  could  push  ajar  the  gates  of  life, 


190  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

And  stand  vithin,  and  all  God's  workings  see, 
We  could  interpret  all  this  doubt  and  strife, 

And  for  each  mystery  could  find  a  key. 
But  not  to-day.     Then  be  content,  poor  heart; 

God's  plans,  like  lilies  pure  and  white,  unfold. 
We  must  not  tear  the  close-shut  leaves  apart — 

Time  will  reveal  the  calyxes  of  gold.i 

So  frequent  and  marked  have  been  such  providen- 
tial interpositions, — styled  in  tlie  world's  parlance, 
disasters ;  that  they  were  thought  by  the  superficial  to 
specially  indicate  guilt.  Job's  friends  thought  so, 
until  the  Lord  rectified  them.  Who  ever  perished, 
being  innocent?  said  Eliphaz,  boldly,  defiantly,  re- 
proachfully, cuttingly;  or  when  were  the  righteous 
cut  off?  They  that  plough  iniquity,  and  sow  wicked- 
ness, reap  the  same.  No  doubt  of  it,  Eliphaz, — not  a 
bit  of  it.  Said  Jesus:  Think  you  those  eighteen, 
upon  whom  the  tower  of  Siloam  fell,  were  greater 
sinners  than  all  the  dwellers  in  Jerusalem?  Nay; 
but  except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  LiKEwise — in  some 
like  way  of  spiritual  ruin — perish.  The  great  tower 
of  spiritual  calamity  shall  tumble  upon  you  in  the 
other  world  and  crush  you  forever!  True,  the  once 
saved  are  saved  for  all  eternity.  Notwithstanding, 
they  need  daily  lustration;  and  who  knows  to  a  cer- 
tainty, that  he  is  safe  from  perdition,  until  the  last 
assuring  hour?  If  in  Christ,  he  knows  it.  What  or 
who  shall  separate?  Alas!  'tis  easy  to  be  deceived. 
The  heart  itself  is  treacherous  and  unreliable.  Satan 
often  transforms  himself  into  an  Angel  of  Light. 

Oftentimes,  to  win  us  to  our  harm, 

The  instruments  of  darkness  tell  us  truths  j 
Win  us  with  honest  trifles,  to  betray  us 
In  deepest  consequence. 

I.    Mary  R.  Smith. 


CALAMITIES  IN  EARTHQUAKES.         191 

The  great  Apostle  was  under  apprehension,  that, 
though  he  had  preached  to  others,  he  himself  might 
at  the  last  be  condemned;  and  therefor,  ever  took  care 
to  keep  his  body,  his  exterior  and  interior  life  in 
subjection. 

What  shall  be  said  of  those  huge  catastrophes,  af- 
fecting multitudes  of  the  Godly  and  ungodly  without 
discrimination, — mighty  aggregations  of  calamities, 
of  such  wide  range  and  vast  extent,  with  such  diver- 
sity of  havoc,  such  variety  of  suffering; — the  earth 
rocking  to  and  fro,  opening  suddenly  into  frightful 
chasms,  into  which  populous  cities  tumble;  then,  by 
as  sudden  contraction,  sealed  up  from  sight  forever — 
in  a  moment,  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  ere  the  com- 
bined shriek  sent  up  dies  on  the  air;  the  upheaval  of 
the  sacerdotal  dead  in  their  cerements  as  they  were 
laid  to  their  last  rest  a  century  before;^  the  sea  reced- 
ing; the  land  sinking;  the  return  of  waters  in  moun- 
tainous waves,  sweeping  everything  before  them  into 
interior  land;  the  heavens  all  the  while  in  a  maze  of 
motion;  the  sun  obscured;  the  atmosphere  choked 
with  blinding,  suffocating  dust,  with  nauseous  stench 
from  the  bowels  of  the  earth;  the  cries  of  human  suf- 
fering,^ of  beasts  and  birds,  commingled  with  the  roar 

1.  By  the  earthquake  of  1868,  the  fortified  island  of  Alacran 
was  submerged  three  times,  all  the  garrison  perishing.  The  first 
wave,  which  rose  to  about  forty  feet,  was  succeeded  by  three 
others  of  less  height.  In  the  opening  of  the  earth,  there  were  dis- 
closed a  large  number  of  mummies,  which  had  been  buried  in  a 
large  sandy  cemetery,  and  in  a  sitting  posture,  facing  the  sea. 
Their  heads  sticking  up  made  the  spot  look  like  a  field  of  potatoes. 

2.  Parents  frequently  told  me  that  they  heard  the  voices  of  their 
little  ones  p-ying    "Papa!  papa!"    ^'Mammal  mamma!"  fainter 


id2  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

of  the  elements; — earthquakes  premonitory  of  the 
Crack  of  Doom ! — events  that  paralyze  the  imagina- 
tion in  the  attempt  to  grasp  and  to  depict? 

Of   such   a  hurricane  of  flame,  as  in  a  night 

consumed  the  fairest  and  the  substantial  part  of 
Chicago, — palaces  of  merchandise,  ihesauros  of  lux- 
uries from  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe;  elegant 
structures  consecrated  to  Science,  Literature  and  Art, 
enriched  with  the  contributions  of  genius,  the  admi- 
ration of  the  world;  avenues  of  marble  homes;  banks 
and  court-houses;  jails,  asylums  and  hospitals  filled 
with  criminals,  the  helpless  and  the  suffering;  splen- 
did temples  consecrated  to  God; — a  hundred  thousand 
homeless,  fleeing  at  midnight  from  their  burning 
homes  in  the  utmost  terror  for  their  lives;  a  surging 
tide  of  humanity  sluicing  over  bridges,  through  tun- 
nels, graveyards,  to  the  barren  sands  of  the  lake  shore 
— into  the  lake  itself,  or  to  the  naked  prairie;  many 
perishing  in  the  vain  struggle  to  escape;  women  giv- 
ing premature  birth  to  babes,  unsheltered  on  the 
prairie; — all,  all  in  a  night,  the  heart  of  a  splendid 
city  "like  an  insubstantial  pageant  "  gone,  with  noth- 
ing but  a  scene  of  blackened  desolation,  a  disinte- 
grated mass  of  brick,  stone,  iron  and  ashes  the  re- 
siduum; wealthy  citizens  brought  in  an  hour  from 
affluence  to  poverty,  many  more  from  competence  or 
comfort  to  gaunt  destitution,  some  driven  to  insanity; 
— the  most  impressive  illustration,  as  is  conceived, 

and  fainter  till  hushed  in  death,  Avhile  thej  were  either  struggling 
in  despair  to  free  themselves,  or  laboring  to  remove  the  fallen 
timber  and  rocks  from  their  children. — TJiom  son  and  Colman  on 
an  Earthquake  in  Safet  of  Syria. 


EAILBOAD   CALAMITIES.  193 

that  could  be  furnished  of  the  fires  of  the  Last  Day  ? 

These,  though  terrible,  and  at  which  the  world 
stands  aghast,  are  but  casual;  they  loom  up  at  a  dis- 
tance from  all  save  the  immediate  sufferers;  their 
very  hugeness  prevents  the  mind  from  being  as  deeply 
affected  by  them  as  by  the  contiguity  of  inferior  ca- 
lamities, which  it  can  grasp,  analyze,  dissect,  and  per- 
haps in  some  measure  apprehend;  they  do  not  so 
affect  the  individual  heart  as  single  calamities,  which 
are  frequent,  on  a  minor  scale,  and  contiguous. 

Three  or  four  sisters  nearing  their  home  after  a 
summer's  absence,  in  the  balmy  breath  of  morning, 
after  a  night's  sweet  repose,  are  roasted  to  death  in  a 
locked-up  car  on  a  side-track  at  rest. — A  rear  car  on 
a  swiftly  speeding  train,  behind  time,  as  it  comes  to 
the  edge  of  a  deep,  rough,  precipitous  ravine,  through 
the  fracture  of  an  axle,  jostled  out  of  the  track, 
dislocated  from  its  connection,  is  hurled  over;  its 
crowded  precious  freight  of  stalwart  men,  dear  wo- 
men, and  sweet  prattling  babes  hurled, — hurl  within 
hurl, — indiscriminately  to  the  bottom  of  the  abyss, 
with  fractured  limbs,  mashed  heads,  red-hot  stoves, 
dry-splintered  seats;  and  there  they  writhe  in  vain, 
for  relief  or  release,  till  they  are  burnt  to  ashes,  or 
Death  comes  quickly  to  spare  the  necessity  of  total 
cremation. 

A  few  months  after, — 

Und  hurre  hurre,  trapp  trapp  trapp ! 


Zur  rechten  und  zur  linken  Hand, 
Vorbei  vor  ihren  Blicken, 
Wie  flogen  Anger,  Haid'  und  Land ! 
Wie  donnerten  die  Brucken ! 
13 


194  THE  ciiiasT  in  life. 

"Graut  Licbchcn  audi?     .     .     . 
Hurrah!  die  Todtcn  rcitcn  schncll! 
Graut  Licbchcn  auch  vor  Todtcn?" 
"Ach  ncin!  -Doch  lasz  die  Todtcn! "  i 

just  at  the  center  of  a  sweeping  curve,  round  the 
mountainous  side  of  rocks;  scenery  desolate  and  wild, 
where  the  hurl  would  be  most  terrific;  over  a  craggier 
precipice  into  a  ravine  frightful  and  fathoms  deep; 
in  pitchy  darkness;  in  a  drizzly  rain;  victims  asleep; 
four  cars  instead  of  one;  with  greater  loss  of  life; 
with  greater  variety  of  mangling, —  wrenched-ofp 
limbs,  scooped-out  brains,  gouged-out  eyes,  tufts  of 
hair  and  clots  of  .blood  on  jagged  points  of  rocks;  with 
more  horrid  consumption  of  women  under  burning 
cars;  bodies  scarcely  recognizable;  identity  lost;  a 
dozen  or  more  passengers  unaccounted  for;  circum- 
stances tragic  and  painful  as  could  be;  maimed  and 
gashed  little  children  running  about  for  mothers  con- 
suming in  the  flames,  parents  for  children,  and  friend 
for  friend; — and  as  the  appalling  climax,  unharmed 
passengers,  lighted  by  the  flame  of  the  burning  cars, 
ghoul-like,  pouncing  upon  the  dead  and  the  dying, 
and  rifling  them  of  their  valuables — one  caught  in  the 
act  of  filing  from  a  lady's  finger  her  diamond  gold 
ring! 

In  the  morning  watch,  a  lake  propeller  is  suddenly 
engulfed  in  flames.  Cribbed  in  cabins,  all  avenues 
of  escape  cut  off;  wife  and  dear  little  ones  consuming 
in  the  fiery  furnace,  while  husbands  and  fathers,  hav- 
ing just  risen  and  gone,  are  driven  aw^ay  by  the  sirocco 
of  advancing  flame  from  the  attempt  to  return  and 
rescue;  and  step  by  step  are  forced  at  last  to  take  the 
I.     Burger's  Leonora. 


A  "VITAL  FOECE."  NO  GOOD,  OMNIPOTENT  GOD.  195 

plunge  into  the  icy  depths  below!     Down  they  go! 
Time  for  them  has  ended  and  eternity  has  begun! 

We  are  such  stuff 

As  dreams  are  made  of,  and  our  little  life 
Is  rounded  with  a  sleep. 

Under  the  pressure  of  the  contemplation  of  such 
scenes  comes  the  suggestion:  "There  is  no  such 
thing  as  Providence,  for  Nature  proceeds  under  irre- 
sistible laws,  and  in  this  respect  the  Universe  is  only 
a  vast  automatic  engine.  The  vital  force  which  per- 
vades the  world  is  what  the  illiterate  call  God."  ^ 

I .     Draper. 

The  principle  of  Good  cannot  at  once  and  altogether  subdue  the 
power  df  Evil,  either  physical  or  moral  .  .  .  Those  who  have 
been  strengthened  in  goodness  by  relying  on  the  sympathizing 
support  of  a  powerful,  good  Governor  of  the  World,  have,  I  am 
satisfied,  never  really  believed  that  Governor  to  be,  in  the  strict 
sense  of  the  term,  omnipotent.  They  have  always  saved  His 
goodness  at  the  expense  of  His  power,  .  .  .  The  author  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  assuredly  a  far  more  benign  Being 
than  the  author  of  Nature,  .  .  .  Nature  is  cruel.  .  .  .  The 
physical  government  of  the  world  being  full  of  the  things  which, 
when  done  by  men,  are  deemed  the  greatest  enormities,  it  cannot 
be  religious  or  moral  in  us  to  guide  our  actions  by  the  analogy  of 
the  course  of  Nature. — J.  S.  Mill. 

The  loss  of  the  belief  in  Providence  belongs,  indeed,  to  the 
most  sensible  deprivations  which  are  connected  with  a  renuncia 
tion  of  Christianity.  In  the  enormous  machine  of  the  Universe, 
amid  the  incessant  whirl  and  hiss  of  its  jagged  iron  wheels,  amid 
the  deafening  crash  of  its  ponderous  stamps  and  hammers,  in  the 
midst  of  this  whole  terrific  commotion,  man,  a  helpless  and  de- 
fenceless creature,  finds  himself  placed,  not  secure  for  a  moment, 
that  on  an  imprudent  motion,  a  wheel  may  not  seize  and  rend  him 
or  a  hammer  crush  him  to  powder.  This  sense  of  abandonment 
is  at  first  something  awful. —  Strauss. — Old  and  New. 

See  "  The  Light  of  Life,"  pages  10-23. 


196  THE   CHllIST   IN   LIFE. 

These  are  all  blows  from  the  Terrible.  Men  stand 
aghast.  The  mind  is  ajjpalled.  Reason  staggers. 
Who  or  "What  is  on  the  Throne?  Who  permits,  tol- 
erates, when  He  can  prevent?  Who  can  interpret? 
But  who  shall  dare  arraign  ?  Will  He  not,  must  He 
not,  being  God,  do  right?  There  must  be  a  better 
world,  with  no  possibility  of  such  dreadful  contingen- 
cies; otherwise,  life  indeed  would  not  be  worth  living. 
There  must  come,  some  time,  a  satisfactory  solution 
of  these  mysteries.  Thou  must  wait,  perturbed,  per- 
plexed, it  may  be,  agonized  soul.  Thou  wilt  have 
eternity  for  the  apprehension. 

The  darling  expectations  of  believers  are  often 
blasted  by  the  loss  of  loved  ones,  in  unexpected  mo- 
ments; not  so  much  of  the  aged  who  are  ripe  for  the 
Harvester,  waiting  for  the  summons,  ready  to  be 
sheaved  in  the  garners  of  the  Lord;  or  of  invalids 
consigned  in  anticipation  to  the  grasp  of  the  insa- 
tiable Destroyer;  or  even  of  those  who,  after  long 
and  exhaustive  struggles  with  disease,  have  yielded 
in  the  unequal  conflict;  for  there  has  been  time  ade- 
quate for  acquiescence  and  submission.  But  main 
props,  darlings,  central  objects  of  attraction  in 
precious  circles  are  taken  away.  There  are  circum- 
stances and  occasions  so  strange  and  mysterious,  that 
the  bereaved  find  themselves  totally  unprepared  for 
them. 

Out  of  such  circumstances  come  the  plaint  and 
the  wail:  Of  all  others,  he,  the  least,  could  have 
been  spared;  if  he  had  died  at  home,  and  not  abroad; 
if  my  own  hands  could  have  ministered  to  his  last 
necessities;   if  I  could  have  smoothed  his  dying  pil- 


SORROWS  FOR  THE  DEATH  OF  LOVED  ONES.    197 

low;  if  he  had  died  of  other  diseases;  if  he  had  passed 
into  the  eternal  world  with  unclouded  intellect;  if  he 
could  have  spoken  to  me  of  the  serenity  of  his  soul, 
while  quivering  in  the  embrace  of  death ;  if  he  could 
have  referred  to  his  unquenched  and  unquenchable 
love  for  me  at  the  last  moment;  if  he  had  passed  into 
the  skies  with  hallelujahs  on  his  lips, — it  had  been 
well.  I  should  submissively  have  quaffed  the  potion 
proffered  to  my  lips,  bitter  as  was  the  draught.  Alas! 
poor  soul,  thou  would'st  not  have  willingly  received 
it. — If  he  had  been  taken  away  in  early  childhood, 
ere  sin  had  stained  the  purity  of  his  soul;  if  he  had 
ripened  into  manhood;  if  she  had  blossomed  into 
womanhood, — I  would  not  have  murmured.  But  I 
have  given  years  of  toil  and  care  to  physical  and  men- 
tal development.  Money  has  not  been  spared.  He 
had  just  attained  the  summit  of  his  ambition.  He  is 
cut  down  in  the  meridian  of  his  strength.  The  sun 
went  down  when  it  was  yet  day.  In  the  budding- 
time  of  her  beauty, — just  as  the  petals  began  to  un- 
fold and  the  fragrance  to  diffuse,  she  has  been 
blighted!  It  has  been  in  vain!  It  has  been  waste ! 
Tried  soul!  'twas  not  in  vain.  'Twas  not  waste.  'Tis 
all  right, — all  true,  eternal  gain. 

With  silence  onlj  as  their  benediction, 

God's  angels  come, 
Where,  in  the  shadow  of  a  great  affliction, 

The  soul  sits  dumb.i 

Yet  would  we  say,  what  every  heart  approveth — 

Our  Father's  will, 
Calling  to  Him  the  dear  ones  whom  He  loveth, 

Is  mercy  still. 

I.     Light  sorrows  speak;  great  grief  is  dumb. — Shakspeare. 
Curge  leves  loquuntur,  ingentes  stupent. — Seneca. 


198  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

Sometimes  one  calamity  treads  swiftly  on  the  heels 
of  another;  they  come 

not  single  spies, 

But  in  battalions ! 

as  they  did  upon  Job:  first,  the  loss  of  property,  then 
of  children,  then  bodily  affliction,  then  spiritual  dark- 
ness,— culminating  in  the  last  desperate  assault  of 
the  Evil  One,  through  perhaps  some  bosom  friend: 
"Curse  God,  and  die." 
These  are  mysteries,  mainly  inexplicable  Here. 

Blind  unbelief  is  sure  to  err, 

And  scan  His  work  in  vain. 
God  is  His  own  Interpreter, 

And  He  will  make  it  plain. 

Often,  worldly  acquisitions,  the  result  of  frugality 
and  incessant  toil  for  years,  or  of  ancestral  husbandry, 
suddenly,  or  by  instalments,  are  taken  away  in  an  in- 
comprehensible manner;  not  through  any  apparent 
lack  of  capacity,  sagacity,  personal  attention  or  pru- 
dent management,  so  far  as  can  be  discerned;  some- 
times, notwithstanding  their  exercise.  Not  a  high 
order  of  talent  is  requisite  for  money-getting,  or  for 
money-keeping, — only  supreme  self-seeking,  selfish- 
ness, niggardliness  combined  with  cunning,  over- 
reaching with  unscrupulosity.  Worldlings  turn  their 
backs  on  those  who  do  not  succeed.— "I  never  have 
anything  to  do  with  an  unlucky  man,"  said  John  Ja- 
cob Astor.  "I  have  seen  many  clever  men,  very 
clever  men,  who  had  not  shoes  to  their  feet.  I  never 
act  with  them." — It  cannot  be  comprehended.  It 
seems  strange,  irreconcilable,  hard;  strange  when  the 
poverty-stricken  are  in  debt,  have  families,  wives  and 


THE  SORROWS  OF  INAPPRECIATION.  199 

precious  little  ones  on  their  hands ;  incomprehensible, 
that  all  laudable  efforts  to  extricate  themselves,  and 
to  meet  such  necessities,  are  thwarted.  It  is  strange, 
incomprehensible.  There  is  no  explanation  Here. 
We  must  wait.  We  shall  have  to  wait,  probably,  un- 
til we  get  up  yonder.  We  must  trust,  trust  to  the 
last,  in  the  darkest  hour.  Patience!  bewildered, 
baffled  soul:    Wait! 

Good  men  have  been  and  are,  even  now,  shut  up, 
in  the  providence  of  God,  by  being  misapprehended, 
incomprehended,  misunderstood.  Poor  Elijah,  after 
the  manifestation  of  his  heroic  zeal  in  the  destruction 
of  the  false  prophets,  fled  to  the  southern  extremity 
of  Judea,  and  to  a  day's  journey  in  the  wilderness 
beyond,  safe,  as  he  hoped,  from  the  threatened  ven- 
geance of  Jezebel,  and  cried  out,  that  he  might  die. 
"It  is  enough;  now,  O  Lord,  take  away  my  life;  for 
now  I  am  not  better  than  my  fathers."  Jeremiah  ex- 
claimed: "I  was  a  derision  to  all  my  people,  and  a 
song  all  the  day.  Woe  is  me  my  mother,  that  thou 
hast  borne  me  a  man  of  strife,  and  a  man  of  conten- 
tion to  the  whole  earth !  I  have  neither  lent  on  usury, 
nor  men  have  lent  to  me  on  usury,  yet  every  one  of 
them  doth  curse  me."  Centuries  elapsed,  before  all 
the  shadows  and  obloquy,  which  wicked  contempo- 
raries cast  upon  the  good  names  of  Tyndale,  Wickliffe 
and  others,  passed  away.  How  bitter  it  is  to  live,  not 
merely  to  be  persecuted,  slandered,  but  to  be  miscon- 
ceived, misinterpreted,  misunderstood!  Thus  God, 
incomprehensibly  in  their  day,  shuts  up  good  men — 
some  of  the  very  best  men, — shuts  them  up,  as  they 
suppose,  from  the  influence  they  hoped  to  wield  for 


200  THE   CHRIST   IN    LIFK. 

good.  Shuts  them  up,  is  it  said?  If  they  could 
speak  to  us  from  those  holy  heights  they  have  as- 
cended, they  would  doubtless  say  to  us,  that  their 
souls,  therefrom,  had  beeu  brought  into  a  large  place. 
"  Now,  we  see.     Then,  we  could  not  understand." 

God  sometimes  shuts  up  His  childi-en  from  a  reali- 
zation of  their  well  conceived  plans  for  usefulness; 
cuts  short  their  career  in  one  place  and  sends  them 
into  another;  lays  them  aside  by  disease  ere  they 
have  reached  their  prime  or  maturity, — literally  shuts 
them  out  from  the  privilege  and  the  opportunity  for 
the  exercise  of  those  gifts  which,  by  insuperable  spir- 
itual obstacles  in  tlieir  own  souls,  or,  denied  use,  are 
as  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  their  bones.  Sometimes  a 
part  of  His  design  in  the  shutting  up  can  be  subse- 
quently discerned.  There  are  dungeons  spiritual,  as 
there  are  material.  John  Bunyan  was  shut  uj)  in 
Bedford  Jail  for  twelve  years  from  preaching  the 
Gospel.  The  prison  to  his  soul, — repression  of  his 
aspirations,  denial  to  use  of  his  gifts,  and  improve- 
ment of  opportunities,  was  infinitely  more  ada- 
mantine than  granite  walls.  How  must  the  fire  from 
supposed  lost  opportunities  have  burnt  into  his  bones 
for  that  dreary  period!  Doubtless  the  world  would 
not  have  been  blessed  with  the  "Progress,"  had  he 
not  been  thus  shut  up.  Excruciating  must  it  have 
been  to  the  Apostles  and  primitive  disciples,  to  be 
deprived  of  the  opportunity  of  preaching  the  Truth, 
when  they  realized  that  the  world,  at  the  Nadir  of 
darkness,  was  without  God;  that  there  was  so  much 
to  do  and  so  little  time  to  do  it;  such  an  account  to 
render.     There  is  no  plaint  more  affecting  than  Mil- 


THEY  SERVE  WHO  STAND  AND  WAIT.  201 

ton's— faithfully   clelineative   and   expressive   of  the 
sorrows  of  all  "shut  up"  souls:— 

When  I  consider  how  my  light  is  spent 

Ere  half  my  days,  in  this  dark  world  and  wide, 

And  that  one  talent  which  is  death  to  hide, 

Lodg'd  with  me  useless,  though  my  soul  more  bent 

To  serve  therewith  my  Maker,  and  present 

My  true  account,  lest  He  returning  chide ; 

"Doth  God  exact  day-labor,  light  denied?  " 

I  fondly  ask :     But  Patience,  to  prevent 

That  murmur,  soon  replies :     "God  doth  not  need 

Either  man's  work,  or  his  own  gifts ;  who  best 

Bear  His  mild  yoke,  they  serve  Him  best:  His  state 

Is  Kingly ;  thousands  at  His  bidding  speed. 

And  post  o'er  land  and  ocean  without  rest: 

They  also  serve,  who  only  stand  and  wait. 

Stand,  then,  shut  up  Christian  believer,  and  wait! 
All  inexplicable  things  must,  in  the  Hereafter,  be 
made  plain.  "Stand,"  then,  child  of  privation,  disap- 
pointment, sorrow,  suffering,  and  "wait."  Isaiah 
xlix:23,  Prov.  xx:22,  Ps.  xxv:5,  Isaiah  xxx:18,  Ps. 
xxvii:14,  Ps.  xxxvii:7.  Lam.  iii:  25-26,  Isaiah  xl:31, 
Isaiah  xxxiii:  2,  Ps.  xl:  1,  Isaiah  xxv:  9.^ 

I.  There  are  seasons,  when  to  be  still  demands  immeasurably 
higher  strength  than  to  act.  Composure  is  often  the  highest  re- 
sult of  power.  ...  Is  there  no  power  put  forth,  when  a  man, 
stripped  of  his  property,  of  the  fruits  of  a  life's  labors,  quells  dis- 
content and  gloomy  forebodings,  serenely  and  patiently  returns  to 
the  tasks  which  Providence  assigns.?— Z>r.  Channing. 

The  gi-eat  difficulty  of  life  appears  to  be  the  art  of  sitting  still. 
Wait!— Wait!— Ah,  those  two  words,  what  salvation  is  in  them! 
You  can  never  do  better  than  act  them  out  once  every  hour.— 
Reminiscences  of  Thought  and  Feeling. 

In  thy  own  .  .  .  perplexities,  do  thou  thyself  but  hold  thy 
tongue  for  one  day:  on  the  morrow,  how  much  clearer  are  thy 
purposes  and  duties ;  what  wreck  and  rubbish  have  these  mute 


202  THE   CHRIST   IN    TJFE. 

Jesus  came  to  manifest  His  sympathy  and  to  ex- 
tend help,  not  only  in  all  such  signal  hours  of  dark- 
ness, which  ''shall  be  many," — in  those  extraordinary 
spiritual  conflicts  which  rage  between  the  Devil  and 
the  soul  for  the  mastery;  those  Hours  of  hours  to 
the  believer,  and  to  all  souls;  in  those  extraordinary 
and  mysterious  allotments  of  Providence,-  -but  in  the 
ordinary  struggles  of  life;  in  the  common  heart-aches, 
sorrows  and  disappointments;  in  all  the  various  ills 
that  Flesh  is  heir  to;  for  "  He  was  tried  in  all  points 
as  we  are." 

How  many  and  various  are  these  maladies  and  ills ! 
There  is  spiritual  depression,  constitutional  with 
some.  It  may  be  from  physical  exhaustion;  the  nat- 
ural rebound  from  anticipation  to  disappointment, 
fi'om  elation  to  depression;  the  result  of  disordered 
digestion;  or  may  spring  from  pecuniary  reverses, 
from  real  or  imaginary  evils,  from  conflict  with  be- 
setting sins,  or  the  petty  machinations  of  the  great 
Adversary. 

The  seemingly  propitious  conditions  of  the  indi- 
vidual yesterday,  to-day  have  not  changed  to  adverse; 

workmen  within  tliee  swept  away,  when  intrusive  noises  were 
shut  out! — Carlyle. 

Impatience  is  an  infallible  sign  of  weakness. — Ecce  Deus. 

No  time  of  seeming  inactivity  is  laid  upon  you  by  God  without 
a  just  reason  It  is  God  calling  upon  you  to  do  His  business,  by 
ripening  in  quiet  all  your  powers  for  some  higher  sphere  of  activ- 
ity which  is  about  to  be  opened  to  you.  The  eighteen  years  at 
Nazareth,  what  was  their  result.?  A  few  years  of  action,  but  of 
action  concentrated,  intense,  infinite ;  not  one  word,  not  one  deed, 
which  did  not  tell,  and  which  will  not  tell,  upon  the  Universe  for- 
ever.— Stopford  A.  Brooke. 


SPIRITUAL  DEPRESSION — ITS  ORIGIN.  203 

if  they  could  be  seen,  as  the  Omniscient  discerns, 
they  might  have  become  in  reality  more  auspicious. 
Yet  they  seem  otherwise.  The  poor  soul  is  depressed. 
The  seeming  is  as  disastrous  in  its  effects  as  the  real. 
The  origin  of  this  depression  and  apprehension 
often  is  occult.  It  cannot  be  detected  by  the  closest 
analysis  in  any  palpable  set  of  circumstances.  It 
may  be  spiritual  altogether.  It  may  be  from  a  touch 
of  the  Fallen  One, — a  chill  of  spiritual  death  wafted 
from  the  Pit  of  Despair.  From  whatever  source,  the 
suffering  is  real,  and  to  be  commiserated.  The  suf- 
ferers are  to  be  dealt  with  tenderly.  Though  an  en- 
lightened will  and  a  purified  conscience  may  struggle 
to  reassure  the  sinking  soul,  it  is  not  always  possible 
to  do  it.     God  alone  can. 

Alone,  amid  life's  griefs  and  perils, 

The  stoutest  soul  may  quail : 
Left  to  its  own  unaided  efforts, 

The  strongest  arm  may  fail. 

Sometimes  the  soul  is  in  darkness,  because  its 
pleadings,  as  it  avers,  it  supposes,  are  not  heard  and 
answered.  Poor  soul!  they  are  heard  and  answered, 
but  not  in  thy  way.  How  is  it  possible  they  should 
not  be  heard?  Is  there  no  God?  Is  He  not  a  Fa- 
ther? Is  He  dead?  Does  He  not  hear?  Is  He  a 
Being  afar  off?  He  is  nigh  thee, — even  in  thy  heart. 
Can  He  be  false  to  His  averments  ?  Can  He  take 
pleasure  in  the  miseries,  the  disappointments  of  His 
children?  It  cannot  be.  If  any  logic  is  persuasive 
and  conclusive,  that  from  analogy  is.  The  Savior's 
employment  of  it  was  so  impressive!  How  compactly 
welded!  how  irresistible  it  was!     Thine  own   child 


204  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

pleads  for  indulgence,  which  thou  knowest  will  be 
positively  injurious  to  him,  and,  therefore,  thou  re- 
fusest  to  gratify.  He  realizes  it  not.  He  acquiesces 
not.  The  reason  and  the  reasonableness  of  thy  course 
he  dost  not  see.  Dost  thou,  if  thou  art  a  wise,  firm 
parent,  yield?  Never,  once.  Thou  indulgest  in  other 
ways.  Thou  seekest  to  substitute  an  innocuous  grat- 
ification for  a  noxious  one.  Thou  endeavorest  to 
purify,  elevate  old  tastes  and  to  develop  new  ones, 
and  for  nobler  objects.  That  is,  if  thou  art  a  firm, 
wise  parent,  thou  wilt  do  it.  When  thou  comest  to 
be  hoary-headed,  or  to  lie  in  thy  grave,  that  child  may 
bless  thee,  that  thou  did'st  deny  him.  Thus  in  the 
coming  ages  of  thy  experience, — in  this  world  it  may 
be,  surely  in  the  next, — thou  wilt  bless  God  for  His 
denial  to  thee  of  what  thou  asked.  Dost  thou  not 
now,  in  thy  past  brief  experience,  thank  Him  that  He 
did  deny  thee?  Many  things  now  dark,  will  ihen  be 
made  plain. 

Perhaps  thou  repliest:  "I  have  not  been  able  to 
see  it  in  that  light."  "O  that  I  could."  Poor  child; 
for  it  seems  thou  art  but  a  child  in  the  Christian  life, 
or  dull,  indocile,  intractable,  not  a  robust,  fully-de- 
veloped man,  a  stalwart  Christian;  or  thou  would'st 
not  be  so  insubmissive  and  complaining.  Hast  thou 
thyself  a  child?  The  reasonableness,  rightfulness, 
utility  of  his  request  are  luminous  as  light  to  Him. 
He  is  restive,  impatient.  But  thou  teachest  him  to 
be  patient  and  submissive;  that  he  must  trust  his  fa- 
ther ;  must  wait  for  apprehension.  Then  he  will  see. 
So  must  thou  trust  and  wait.  Perhaps  thou  shalt 
see  hereafter  in   this   life — assuredly  in  the  next. 


THE  LOED  WILL  niOVIDE.  205 

Whether  thou  wilt  or  not,  thou  must  be,  in  such  Pres- 
ence, still,  and  wait. 

Man's  weakness  waiting  upon  God 

Its  end  can  never  miss, 
For  men  on  earth  no  work  can  do 

More  angel-like  than  this.i 

Thou  hast  lost  a  loved  one,  round  whom  thy  heart 
clung.  "  If  He  had  taken  another!  and  "at  a  different 
time!"  and  "had  prepared  me  for  the  bereavement!" 
Shall  He  not  do  what  He  pleases  with  His  own?  Will 
He  not  do  right?     Is  not  His  time  the  best? 

Thou  hast  been  long  pleading  for  competence,  if 
not  for  wealth.  Thou  thinkest  thou  would'st  be  a 
wiser  and  better  man  if  thou  had'st  it.  The  Father 
thinks  not,  it  is  evident,  or  it  would  be  bestowed. 
Poverty  does  seem  to  dessicate  the  juices  of  life.  It 
should  ennoble,  sweeten,  purify  all  souls,  as  it  did 
Paul's.  Thou  thinkest  thy  prayers  have  not  been 
heard,  because  the  answers  have  not  come.  They 
came,  but  not  as  thou  asked,  nor  in  thy  way. 

In  some  way  or  other  the  Lord  will  provide ; 
It  may  not  be  J7iy  way, 
It  may  not  be  thy  way, 
And  yet  in  His  own  way 
The  Lord  will  provide. 

Richer  blessings,  perhaps  antagonistic  to  what  thou 
desirest,  will  be,  are  sent  in  lieu,  in  disguise.  They 
have  been  coming  to  thee,  repining  soul!  every  day: 
thou  hast  not  discerned  them.  One  poor  soul,  pos- 
sessing in  abundance  the  things  that  thou  desirest,  in 
contemplation  of  its  luxurious  condition,  once  thus 
addressed  itself: — 

"  Soul  I  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  thyself, 

I.     Faber. 


206  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

many  years.  Take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink  and  be 
merry." 

"Fool!"  said  God. 

The  very  night  of  the  day  of  its  self-gratulation, 
God  "required,"  summoned  it  to  His  Bar.  Nothing 
of  its  great  abundance  was  taken  with  it.  That  was 
all  left  behind.  Not  even  the  shroud  that  enveloped 
the  soulless  body  had  a  pocket.  Sad,  ghastly,  trag- 
ical! Nothing  conceivable  could  be  more  so.  Yet 
there  are  many  like,  passing  into  the  eternal  world  * 
every  day.  The  epic  conclusion  was:  "So  is  he,  that 
layeth  up  treasure  for  himself,  and  is  not  rich  toward 
God."  Would'st  thou  be  such  an  one?  Would' st 
thou  have  such  an  end? 

Weeping,  repining,  cast-down,  bewildered  soul! 
Look  up ! 

Our  pathway  oft  is  wet  with  tears, 

Our  sky  with  clouds  o'ercast, 
And  worldly  cares  and  worldly  fears 

Go  with  us  to  the  last: — 

Not  to  the  last!     God's  word  hath  said, 

Could  we  but  read  aright ; 
O  Pilgrim !  lift  in  hope  thy  head ; 

At  eve,  it  shall  be  light! 

The  soul  of  Jesus  in  Gethsemane  "was  exceedingly 
sorrowful  unto  death." '  All  possible  sorrow  in  all 
possible  intensity  was  compressed  in  such  utterance. 
There  will  be  Gethsemane  hours  to  all  believers. 
Will  He  not  sympathize  in  such?  Will  He  not? 
Will  He  abandon  a  sinking  soul?     Will  He  not  un- 

I.  We  see  what  God  thinks  of  riches  by  the  people  He  gives 
them  to. — Deaii  Swift. 

"Ah,  David !  these  are  the  things  that  make  death  terrible." — 
^O/mson  to  Garricky  ivhen  the  latter  shotved  him  his  grand  house. 


PRAYER  SUBORDINATE  TO  GOD's  WILL.     207 

dergird  it  with  the  everlasting  arms  of  His  love? 
Trust  thoii  Him,  then,  tried  but  distrustful  one.  Cast 
thy  burdens,  all  thy  sorrows  upon  Him.  Thou  shalt 
find  Him  the  unfailing,  the  sure,  the  thorough  sym- 
pathizer.    Wilt  thou  trust  Him? 

On  His  human  side,  it  seemed  essential  that  the 
impending  Cup  of  Suffering  should  pass  away  from 
Him  unquaffed,  untouched.  He  therefore  earnestly 
prayed  it  might,  and  thrice: — "if  it  hQ possible"  cried 
He, — "possible"  with  the  arrangements  of  the  Divine 
Will*.  "Nevertheless,  not  as  I  will,  but  as  Thou  wilt." 

Such  acquiescence  and  submission  ought  to  be  sig- 
nificant to  disciples,  in  their  cries  to  the  Father  for 
the  bestowment  of  certain  things  deemed  blessings, 
and  for  the  removal  of  certain  other  things  regarded 
burdens, — very  grievous  troubles,  which  it  does  not 
seem  possible  could  be  longer  borne.  Let  the  cry 
go  up  : 

Not  what  we  wish,  but  what  we  want, 

Let  mercy  still  supply: 
The  good  we  ask  not,  Father,  grant, 

The  ill  we  ask,  deny.i 

When,  therefore,  Christians  pray  for  temporal  bless- 
ings besides  food  or  raiment — for  the  removal  of  cer- 
tain troublous  states  or  circumstances,  they  must  do 
so  in  subordination  to  the  Father's  will;  to  be  be- 
stowed or  to  be  withheld,  to  be  continued,  or  to  be 
withdrawn,  as  may  be  deemed  for  their  weal.  Giving 
doth  not  impoverish  Him,  for  the  Universe  is  His, 
the  silver  and  the  gold,  the  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills. 
The  child  of  God  is  heir  to  all  things.     The  Father 

I.     Herrick. 


208  THE   CHIIIST   IN    LIFE. 

lias  higher  bestowments  for  His  children  than 
material  weal.  Man  is  left  to  work  out  his  own 
destiny,  to  choose  the  good  or  to  reject  it.  Such  val- 
ue, as  men  attach  to  the  material,  is  more  relative 
than  absolute,  circumstantial  than  intrinsic.  What- 
ever it  has  is  chiefly  derived  from  the  energy,  indus- 
try, skill  of  producers  or  possessors.  Comparative 
scarcity,  difficult  access,  cost  of  mining  and  reduction, 
more  than  intrinsic  worth  and  beauty,  give  gold  its 
value.  Occupancy,  tillage,  nearness  to  market,  to 
populous  centers,  give  chief  value  to  lands  by  acres, 
to  lots  by  feet.  Should  Providence  take  from  a  wise 
pecuniary  manager  to  enrich  others,  it  might  be  to 
foster  improvidence,  shiftlessness,  idleness  in  them 
and  to  stay  their  righteous  development.  It  is  dis- 
cipline, development,  thus,  purification,  elevation,  en- 
largement, thus,  fittedness,  preparedness  for  the  celest- 
ial life  that  God  has  in  design ;  not  ease,  luxuriousness, 
freedom  from  trial,  material  possessions  that  the  soul 
cannot  take  with  it  to  the  other  side  of  the  Biver. 
Thou  shouldst,  ere  this,  disciple!  have  learned  the 
fact.  Sometimes,  "the  wealth  of  the  sinner  is  laid 
up  for  the  just," — not  ordinarily  in  their  time.  God 
is  patient  to  the  last.  His  mills  grind  slowly  as  men 
count  slowness,  yet  to  the  end.  Ordinarily,  men  will 
thrive  pecuniarily,  as  they  are  wise,  industrious,  fru- 
gal. If  they  are  otherwise,  they  must  accept  the 
sequel  in  poverty  and  want.  There  is  no  escape  from 
results  of  any  violation  of  the  conditions  of  material 
well-being,  and  of  worldly  prosperity.  If  they  break 
law,  or  their  ancestors  have  done  it  before  them, 
prayer  does  not  repair  or  stay  consequences  of  the 


WEALTH  A  BLESSING  OR  CURSE,  AS  USED.  209 

violation.  "Gravitation  will  not  cease  when  they  go 
by."  Not  that  it  is  not  possible  for  God  to  do  it.  Not 
that  He  may  not,  sometimes,  in  His  inscrutable  wisdom 
and  in  an  incomprehensible  manner,  do  it.  Ordinarily, 
it  is  certain  He  does  not  do  it.  If  thou  choosest  the 
world,  thou  must  take  it  with  its  vicissitudes,  its  chances, 
its  ultimate  unsatisfyingness,  its  inevitable  sorrows. 
It  will  prove  an  ashy  sceptre  in  thy  hands,  the  shadow 
of  a  crown  on  thy  head.  Thou  must  be  content  with 
thy  deliberately  chosen  portion.  If  thou  choosest  God 
thou  must  take  with  Hifti  the  tribulation  He  sends, 
when  needed,  upon  the  children  He  loves.  If  thou 
art  faithful  unto  death.  He  will  give  thee  a  crown  of 
life.  In  the  world,  ye  shall  have  tribulation.  "Whom 
the  Lord  loves.  He  chastens."  Every  one  that  hath 
left  houses,  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or  father,  or  moth- 
er, or  wife,  or  children,  or  lands  for  my  name's  sake, 
shall  receive  a  hundred-fold,  and  shall  inherit  ever- 
lasting life !     Matth.  xix :  29. 

Wealth  is  a  great  boon, — a  blessing  or  curse  to  its 
possessor  and  to  mankind,  as  it  is  used.  It  may  be  the 
means  to  the  achievement  of  the  best  and  greatest  ends, 
spiritual  or  material.  It  may  blight  or  beautify,  debase 
or  exalt.  As  is  person,  intellect,  education,  social  posi- 
tion or  official  station,  so  is  wealth,  a  talent  to  be 
consecrated  to  the  holiest  purposes.  Its  possession 
cannot  be  otherwise  than  conjoined  with  responsibil- 
ity commensurate.  The  Parable  of  the  Talents,  illus- 
trative of  individual  responsibility, — kxdffrw  xa-a  rr^v 
I8iav  dbvafxtv^ — discloses  in  sentences  curt,  compressed, 
energic,  the  terrible  end  of  the  unprofitable  servant. 

14 


210  THE   CHltlST   IN    LIFE. 

The  mere  disuse  of  a  single  talent, — 'tis  significant 
that  it  was  the  one,  not  the  five  or  the  ten, — not  put 
to  use,  not  waste  or  debasing  expenditure,  will  bring 
the  possessor  ultimately  into  "outer  darkness,"  where 
is  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth.  Of  what  darkness 
is  such  imagery  prefiguration  ?  The  corrupting  in- 
fluence of  unsanctified  wealth  does  not  terminate 
with  the  ruin  of  its  individual  possessor.  It  descends 
to  corrupt  to  "the  last  days."  "Ye  have  heaped 
treasure  together  for  the  last  days."  "Last  days!" 
Thy  last  days,  or  the  w^orld's^or  the  Crack  of  Doom, 
as  thou  would'st  have  it, — Kich  One!  with  thy  gold 
and  silver,  that  "  is  cankered "  for  the  want  of  holy 
consecration  and  use. 

One  of  the  most  painful  experiences  to  souls  yearn- 
ing for  intercommunion  with  the  congenial  in  thought 
and  purpose,  the  good,  the  pure  and  the  true,  is  the 
realization  that  there  are,  everywhere,  impassable 
barriers  to  such  intimacy.  Few  souls  know  each 
other.  It  is  so  difficult  to  apprehend  and  to  be  ap- 
prehended. Consciousness  of  imperfection,  remem- 
brances of  confidence  betrayed,  have  engendered  cau- 
tion and  distrust.  Intercourse  is  guarded.  Familiarity 
is  discouraged.  The  soul  is  driven  in  upon  itself  for 
companionship, — into  the  recesses  of  solitude,  the 
fastnesses  of  isolation,  to  he  alone.  Alone!  None 
but  heavily-burdened  souls  know  what  it  is  to  be 
alone.     Jesus  knew  it. 

Thou  must  Avalk  on,  however  men  upbraid  thee, 
With  Him  who  trod  the  wine-press  all  alone; 

Thou  wilt  not  find  one  human  hand  to  aid  thee. 
One  human  soul  to  comprehend  thine  own. 

Indifference  to  the  social  as  well  as  to  the  material 


BAEBIERS  TO  SOCIAL  INTIMACY.  211 

interests  and  necessities  of  others  ensues.  An  armed 
neutrality  is  maintained  in  personal  intercourse. 
Each  one  seeks  to  seclude  himself,  to  retreat  to  the 
innermost  recesses  of  his  being.  Thus  far,  and  no 
farther,  is  the  intimation  given.  No  heart  is  placed 
close  to  another.  There  is  always  more  or  less  re- 
serve. There  is  the  still  more  insurmountable  barrier 
to  social  intimacy  between  the  sexes.  Men  and  wo- 
men are  made  for  the  society  of  each  other.  They 
are  complemental  reciprocally  of  each  other.  Yet 
intercommunion  between  them  is  not  tolerated,  save 
in  wedded  pairs.  Doubtless  it  is  not  safe  otherwise. 
Even  many  mated  ones  are  interiorly  aliens  and 
strangers  to  each  other. 

How  many  such  aspirations  are  repressed,  aye  crushed 
out  of  souls,  by  the  consciousness  of  their  impossible 
realization  on  earth!  They  spring  from  the  casual 
interview,  in  the  social  circle,  the  Christian  congrega- 
tion, in  the  same  pew,  singing  the  same  song  of  praise, 
listening  to  the  same  benediction;  with  wants  and  ne- 
cessities voiced  in  the  same  representative  prayer, — 
lifted  heavenward  by  the  same  aspirations.  Is  there 
scene  more  august,  more  redolent  of  Heaven,  than  a 
congregation  of  reconciled  ones  brought  together,  not 
only  by  the  elective  affinity  of  mind,  culture  and 
taste,  but  by  the  common  love  of  the  Christ, — sub- 
scribing to  the  same  Faith,  cherishing  the  same 
Hope,  sitting,  singing,  praying  together?  Yet  how 
little  they  know  of  each  other!  How  spiritually  iso- 
lated they  stand!  Eyes  may  meet,  hand  may  take 
hand,  and  salutation  respond  to  salutation,  yet  there 
may  be  no  ventured  touch  of  soul,  contiguity  of  heart. 


212  THE   CHKIHT   IN   LIFE. 

Will  it  be  always  thus?  Surely,  not  in  the  Heav- 
enly State.  May  it  not  be  hoped  that  some,  at  least 
of  these  barriers  to  intercommunion  will  bo  removed 
in  the  latter  day  glory?  Is  there  no  significance  to 
certain  interviews  of  Jesus?  Has  any  impropriety 
been  detected  in  the  converse  with  the  erring  one  at 
the  well  of  Samaria,  or  in  those  oft  resorts  to  the 
home  of  Mary  and  Martha?  Will  there  be  no  period 
in  the  future,  when  disciples  of  Jesus  may  be  able  to 
attain  to  such  self-mastery,  that  they  can  enjoy  such 
intimacies  without  injury  in  fact,  or  basis  for  injurious 
imputation?  ^ 

The  sympathy  of  Jesus  led  Him  to  minister  every- 
where to  wretchedness  and  want.  It  moved  Him  to 
go  into  the  house  where  dead  children  lay,  that  He 
might  quicken  them  to  the  embrace  of  parents  again ; 
to  arrest  the  bier  on  its  funeral  march,  that  the  only 
son  might  be  restored  to  the  widow  mother;  to  go 
with  the  bewildered  sisters  to  the  sepulchre,  and  to 
weep;  to  summon,  under  pressure  and  urgency  of 
sympathetic  emotion,  the  dead  one  to  come  out  from 

I.  On  earth  the  communion  of  one  human  mind  with  another 
is  profoundly  mysterious,  and  it  is  far  more  rare  than  we  imagine. 
Intercourse  by  looks,  words  and  acts  is  universal ;  but  real  mental 
fellowship,  communion  of  intellect  with  intellect,  conscience  wi 
conscience,  heart  with  heart,  soul  with  soul,  is  excessively  rare.  It 
is  always  and  necessarily  imperfect.  The  real  and  great  differ- 
ences between  one  soul  and  another,  and  the  consequent  propor- 
tional defect  of  sympathy  between  them,  mental  and  moral  in- 
competence and  poverty  on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  or  both  in 
different  respects,  constitutional  or  acquired  reserve,  shame,  pride 
and  fear,  necessarily  prevent  the  entireness  and  the  freedom  of 
communion. — The  Christ  of  History. 


SYMPATHY  UNIVERSAL  AND  WITHOUT  LIMIT.        213 

the  grasp  of  death  to  their  embrace  once  more.  ''  Be- 
hold, how  He  loved  him!"  said  the  Jews.  But,  to 
reach  His  sympathetic  heart,  'twas  not  necessary  to 
bring  Him  into  the  presence  of  the  sheeted  dead, 
with  heart-stricken  survivors  looking  in  the  agony  of 
grief  to  Him  for  sympathy, — to  secure  from  Him  the 
electric  response :  ^^Go  thy  way"  "Be  it  unto  thee 
as  thou  hast  asked.''  "Thy  faith  has  saved  thee." 
"Thy  child  shall  live."  There  were  living  dead,  or 
those  wasting  to  death,  to  whom  very  death  would  have 
been  a  relief;  there  were  blind,  and  paralytics,  and 
lepers,  and  demoniacs;  more:  the  multitude  that 
surged  about  Him,  or  studiously  avoided  Him,  were 
dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.  His  heart  was  touched 
with  their  sorrows.  He  yearned  for  their  eternal 
weal.  He  could  not  pass  the  frail  woman  at  the  well 
of  Samaria,  without  letting  His  heart  gush  out  in 
memorable  sympathy.  It  led  Him  to  court  associa- 
tion with  Publicans  and  outcasts.  The  agonies  of 
His  last  hour  could  not  repress  the  manifestation  of 
His  deathless  interest  even  in  thieves,  co-partners  in 
physical  suffering;  and  for  His  military  crucifiers: 
"Father!  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do."  His  sway  with  the  hearts  of  men  is,  therefore, 
no  mystery.  Those  who  have  not  recognized  the  di- 
vinity of  His  Person  have  been  moved  by  His  divine 
sympathy.  He  still  lives  in  God;  lives  also  to  sym- 
pathize, as  we  are  assured  and  trust,  with  Divine 
power  to  aid;  in  the  immediate  presence  and  grasp  of 
all  infinite  resources  to  help.  From  this  trust  comes 
this  deathless  power  over  souls  who  have  believed  on 
Him.    Having  been  tried  to  the  uttermost,  He  is  able 


214  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

to  sympathize  mth  those  who  are  tried,  to  any 
extremity. 

Now,  if  a  man,  a  mere  philanthropist  or  humani- 
tarian, much  more  a  professed  minister  of  Jesus,  who 
undertakes  to  speak  in  His  name,  would  have  real, 
permanent  dnfluence  with  men,  he  must  become  a 
deep  sympathizer  with  them.  A  fragile,  a  miserably 
fragile  representative  of  his  Master  is  he,  who,  desti- 
tute of  this  putting  one's  heart  in  the  heart  position 
of  another,  undertakes  professionally,  as  a  life-work, 
to  teach  in  His  name.  Such  one  will  fail  in  the  de- 
sirable and  gi-eat  end  of  his  mission.  Mere  patriots, 
philanthropists,  humanitarians,  will  have  gi-eater  in- 
fluence among  their  fellows,  on  account  of  this  large- 
hearted  sympathy,  than  disciples  of  Jesus  without  it. 
Garibaldi,  politically  rash  as  he  may  have  been 
deemed;  skeptical  in  belief,  as  is  affirmed;  revolting 
from  the  Komanistic  illustration  of  Christianity,  to 
rest  upon  the  conclusions  of  a  stony-eyed  and  stony- 
hearted Reason, — Garibaldi,  far  from  being  Christian 
in  domestic  life,  has  wielded  a  profounder  sway  over 
the  masses  of  Italy,  indeed  of  Europe,  than  all  the 
Priests  and  churches  in  it,  Popish  or  Protestant,  be- 
cause his  sympathy  for  his  oppressed  fellow-country- 
men was  great, — indeed,  for  the  oppressed  of  all  na- 
tionalities; for  he  found  time  to  waft  a  sympathetic 
word  over  continents  and  oceans  to  them.^ 

Fisher  of  men !  thou  must  have  the  largest  possible 

I.  Man  is  one. 


And  he  hath  one  great  heart.     It  is  thus  we  feel, 
With  a  gigantic  throb  athwart  the  sea, 
Each  other's  rights  and  wrongs;  thus  are  we  men. 

— Festus. 


SYMPATHY  IN  THE  CLERGY  ESSENTIAL.  215 

measure  of  putting  thy  heart  in  the  heart  position  of 
another.  This  love  current  bearing  on  to  their  Heav- 
enly mission  all  other  ministerial  gifts,  must  ever 
sluice  through  thy  soul.  The  memory  of  what  He 
has  done  for  thee  must  ever  be  an  august  presence. 
The  deeper  is  the  degradation  of  thy  fellow-man,  the 
more  wan  will  be  his  woe.  Thy  soul  must  go  down 
and  take  hold  of  his  and  lift  it  up.  Though  rich  in 
other  graces,  destitute  of  this,  thou  canst  proffer  but 
a  dry  morsel  to  a  soul-hungered  one.  Though  elo- 
quent in  tongue,  thou  wilt  be  but  mere  sounding 
brass  or  a  clanging  cymbal.  It  is  said  apologetically: 
there  are  constitutional  differences.  True,  if  thou  art 
frigid,  unsympathetic,  or  have  educated  thyself  to  be 
so,  thou  lackest  a  primal,  essential  qualification,  and 
perhaps  have  mistaken  thy  vocation.  Certainly, 
Grace  can  soften,  educe  to  tenderness  and  sympathy 
the  haughty,  chilly  heart;  otherwise,  there  is  no  place 
for  it  in  apostleship.  The  world  is  filled  with  sorrow. 
Each  soul  has  its  portion  of  bitterness.  When  men 
pause  in  their  secular  career,  and  go  to  the  House  for 
Divine  service,  they  go  for  sympathy,  solace,  comfort, 
consolation.  Give  it  to  them,  then.  Some,  doubtless, 
may  be  there  with  burdened  hearts.  Their  darkness 
has  not  yet  culminated.  Tliey  have  not  yet  entered 
into  the  shades  of  their  Gethsemane.  The  larger 
portion  will  come  wearied  with  their  antagony  in  the 
world;  with  equanimity  disturbed;  with  nerves  trem- 
ulous, if  not  exacerbated  in  the  sharp  encounter.  The 
cares  of  life,  the  deceitfulness  of  riches,  the  lust  of 
other  things  preoccupy  their  minds.  Some  will  be 
about  to  sink  in  the  apparently  hopeless  grip  of  Grace 


21G  THE   CHRIST   IN    LIFE. 

upon  selfishness  in  their  souls, — selfishness  aroused 
and  stimulated  to  demonstration  in  self-defense,  by 
the  lawless,  thoughtless,  inconsiderate  self-seeking  of 
others.  For  six  days,  all  the  lower  principles  of  their 
nature  have  been  stirred  to  activity  in  their  turbid 
depths.  To  j^ui-e  intellectual  excitations;  to  the  cul- 
ture of  the  heart;  to  the  engendering  of  spiritual  emo- 
tions, they  have  been  total  strangers.  The  race  and 
the  battle  have  been  for  the  world.  The  strain  ui:)on 
their  Christian  constitution  has  been  fearful.  Out  of 
the  depths  the  cry  comes:  Eest!  Deliver  us,  our 
God!  Mercifully  grant  us  rest,  temporary  respite  at 
least,  from  these  combined  assaults  of  the  World,  the 
Flesh  and  the  Devil.  Our  nerves  are  shattered  in 
this  hurly-burly  of  life.  We  are  troubled  on  every 
side,  and  in  despair.  We  are  dumb.  Our  Christian 
faith  is  paralyzed  at  the  amazing  prosperity  of  the 
wicked,  and  the  equally  incomprehensible  adversity 
of  the  righteous.     Thou  hidest  Thyself 

so  wondrouslj, 

As  though  there  were  no  God; 
And  Thou  art  least  seen, 

when  all  the  powers 

Of  ill  are  most  abroad. 
Ill  masters  good ;  good  seems  to  change 

To  ill  with  greatest  ease ; 
And,  worst  of  all,  the  good  with  good 
Is  at  cross  purposes. 


Doubts  do  come, 

if  God  hath  kept 

His  promises  to  men. 


Bring  us  into  the  Holy  Chamber  of  Thy  House,  O 
God!  that  we  may  be  able  to  comprehend,  somewhat 
at  least,  the  mysteries  of  Thy  Providence  and  of  Thy 


THE  TEMPEST-TOSSED  IN  CONGREGATIONS.        217 

Grace,  in  Thy  dealing  with  men.  Let  us  be  able  to 
say,  through  spiritual  apprehension:  "Surely,  Thou 
did'st  set  the  wicked  in  slippery  places.  How  are 
they  brought  into  desolation  as  in  a  moment!" 
"Thou  casted'st  them  down  to  destruction."  "The 
righteous  shall  not  be  moved.  They  shall  be  held 
in  everlasting  remembrance."  Come  and  dwell  with 
us,  this  one  day,  if  no  more.  Fortify  us  by  Thy 
strength  in  our  extremity;  otherwise  we  shall  fail  and 
fall  in  the  next  six  days'  encounter. 

There  sit  some  in  those  pews,  in  the  maze  of  ques- 
tionings and  doubts.  The  pall  of  despair  has  settled 
on  their  souls.  Scarcely  a  star,  perhaps  not  even  the 
Star  of  Bethlehem,  is  seen  in  the  firmament  of  their 
spiritual  night.  There  sit  others,  clad  in  the  habili- 
ments of  grief.  Sorrows  have  come  upon  their  hearts 
and  into  their  homes.  There's  a  poor,  solitary  sinner, 
stranger  in  that  congregation,  whose  soul  all  the  week 
has  been  quaking  under  the  thunderings  and  light- 
nings of  Sinai;  having  failed,  as  yet,  to  get  to  Calvary 
— to  lie  down  and  to  leave  there  its  dreadful  weight 
of  guilt.  There's  another  poor,  tempest-tossed  soul. 
Demons  have  entered  it,  to  drive,  if  possible,  to  the 
suicidal  act,  that  thus  may  end  the  weariness  of  life, — 
a  quietus  be  put  by  a  bare  bodkin  to  the  reproaches 
of  a  guilty  consciences,  the  ceaseless  gnawings  of  the 
"worm  that  never  dies."  No  fiction  is  this:  'tis  dread 
reality:  tragically  enacted  daily!  Every  day  booms 
the  announcement — 

"One  more  unfortunate." 

There's  another, — a  child  of  God,  it  is  hoped.  All 
the  forces  of  Gehenna  have  combined  in  assault  upon 


218  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

him.  He's  like  a  ship  in  a  storm.  The  winds  are 
howling,  the  waves  run  mountains  high;  not  a  star  is 
out;  the  darkness  can  be  felt;  the  masts  are  going  by 
the  board;  and  the  gallant  vessel  staggers,  premoni- 
tory of  the  final  plunge.     It  is  a  night  of  horrors, 

With  shrieking  fiends  in  the  crowded  air, 
And  fiends  on  the  swarming  sea.x 

Nor  is  this  fiction.  Many  and  many  a  poor  soul  has 
been  thus  tempest-tossed.  David  was  thus  in  peril, 
when  he  forgot  there  was  an  all-seeing  God.  Peter 
was  in  the  trough  of  this  tempestuous  sea,  when  he 
denied  his  Master.  E'en  Paul,  the  intrepid,  had 
apprehension  of  that  Hour  of  hours  to  the  tried 
one,  when  he  charged  his  Ephesian  brethren  to  put 
on  the  whole  armor  of  God,  that  they  might  be  able 
to  stand  against  the  wiles  of  the  Devil.  And  the 
greater  portion  are  without  hope  and  God.  Insen- 
sate, they  have  come  in,  perhaps  merely  to  kill  time; 
perhaps  to  be  instructed;  perhaps  to  drown  the  voice 
of  conscience,  by  seeming  to  give  heed  to  its  moni- 
tions. There  they  are, — tried  men  and  women.  No 
one  can  say,  whether  they  will  all  appear  again  in 
that  House. 

Out  of  the  depths  of  these  many-conditioned  hearts 
go  up  cries,  tears,  sighs  and  aspirations.  We  beseech 
Thee,  O  God,  have  mercy  upon  us!  Son  of  God, 
have  mercy  upon  us!  Holy  Spirit,  have  mercy  upon 
us!  Representative  of  the  Christ!  thou  wilt  often 
stand  in  such  presence, — between  the  living  and  the 

I.     Kathrina. — Holland. 

The  sea  is  lonely,  the  sea  is  dreary, 

The  sea  is  restless  and  uneasy.  — Lowell. 


WHAT  CAN  BE  DONE  TO  RESCUE  THE  FALLEN?      219 

dead.  Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?  Ah!  who? 
Art  thou?  J^sus  alone  can  make  thee.  Hast  thou 
been  a  sufferer  of  any  kind?  Bless  God  for  it,  for 
sympathy  comes  through  suffering.  One  must  suffer 
to  be  truly  fitted  for  effectual  sympathy  with  the  suf- 
fering. Go,  then,  to  that  gathered  company  of  the 
tried; — from  thy  closet;  with  the  love  of  Christ;  with 
a  double  portion  of  the  Spirit;  with  lips  touched  by 
its  fire;  with  faith  to  lift  thee  and  them  to  God;  en- 
deavoring to  make,  somewhat,  their  sorrows  thine ;  to 
bear,  somewhat,  their  burdens;  to  apprehend,  some- 
what, their  spiritual  state.  Get  by  faith  into  the 
presence  of  the  great  Intercessor,  God  Himself,  and 
thou  may'st  prevail  for  them  and  thee.  If  not,  what 
will  become  of  them  and  thee? 

What  can  be  done  to  rescue  the  multitude  of  young 
women  in  all  large  cities,  "whose  feet  go  down  to 
death,  whose  steps  take  hold  on  Sheol  ?  "  Profli- 
gate young  men, — the  greater  sinners, — to  some  extent 
are  reached.  These  are  not.  They  are  passed  by  on 
the  other  side  by  the  virtuous  of  their  own  sex,  who 
only,  perhaps,  can  safely  go  to  them.  Can  any  iJiing 
he  done?  This  is  the  unsolved  problem  of  modern 
Christian  effort.  Something  ought  to  be  done,  and 
that  which  is  effectual.  Difficulties  hedge  it  about, 
but  the  hedge  must  be  broken  through.  In  the  effort 
to  rescue  imperilled,  perdition-driven  souls,  there  is 
no  time  to  waste  in  consideration  of  etiquette,  and 
query  about  proprieties.  The  instincts  of  humanity 
plead.  The  memorable  example  of  Jesus  has  been 
ever  urging.  Thou  should' st  be  willing  to  put  in  peril 
thy  reputation,  believer,  if  thou  art  able,  through  di- 


220  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

Tine  help,  to  keep  tliyself  unspotted,  that  thou  may's! 
be  permitted  to  do  something  effectual  for  their  rescue. 
Will  there  never  come  a  time,  when  believers,  with  a 
modicum  of  their  Master's  purity,  at  least  fore-armed 
with  a  portion  of  His  divine  strength,  may  deem  it 
safe, — an  imperative  requirement,  to  seek  these  fallen 
ones,  to  entreat  them,  to  direct  them  to  the  "Friend 
of  sinners,"  to  say  to  them  in  His  name:  Hast  thou 
fallen?  Lift  up  thy  soul!  There  is  still  hope  for 
thee.  Thou  canst  rise  again.  Let  no  one  reproach 
thee.     I  do  not.     Go :  sin  no  more ! 

When  the  stars  are  setting  one  by  one,  in  silent 
procession,  to  their  rest  behind  the  Western  sky,  no 
spectacle  is  sadder  than  that  of  these  forlorn  ones,-  - 
young  women, — somebody's  daughter,  somebody's  sis- 
ter, some  one  whom  somebody  ought  to  love,  rescue,  if 
possible; — nothing  is  sadder  than  the  sight  of  these 
forlorn  ones  in  their  death  tramp  on  the  Broadways 
of  our  great  cities : — 

Faces,  terrible  faces, 

With  a  tale  unsaid ; 
Fixed  human  faces, 

Whence  the  light  has  fled ; 
Faces,  and  ever  faces, 

Where  the  soul  is  dead,i 

once  sweet,  innocent  ones,  guileless  as  thine  own, 
whom  a  gracious  Providence  has  hitherto  preserved 
from  such  fate.  Wilt  thou  not  feel?  Wilt  thou  not 
do?  If  not,  then,  "inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  unto 
the  least  of  one  of  these,  ye  did  it  not  to  me." 

Houses  of  Refuge  there  are  for  such.  They  are 
good  to  the  end  of  their  capacity.     But  they  are  not 

I.     Rob't  Buchanan. 


SYMPATHY  FOR  OTHERS  REQUISITE.  221 

adequate  to  meet  the  necessities  of  those  fallen  ones, 
either  as  to  numbers  or  specific  wants.  The  Chris- 
tian family  is  the  natural  and  ordained  home  for  such. 
Doubtless,  comparatively  few  families  are  thus  called 
to  receive  them.  Many  cannot,  ought  not, — from  re- 
gard to  their  children.  But  it  is  believed,  that  there 
are  enough,  not  so  conditioned,  who  can  and  who  ought 
to  receive  them,  and  to  be  patient  with  them  to  the 
last.  The  inquiry  is  to  every  Christian  family:  art 
thou  called?  If  so,  separate  thyself  to  this  work.  To 
it  some,  evidently,  are  summoned.  Search,  determine 
whether  the  summons  is  not  to  thee! 

Brother!  we  must  have  faith,  in  order  to  take  hold 
of  God's  sympathy  for  us  manifested  through  His 
Son,  and  that  we  may  in  turn  extend  it  to  our  kind,  or 
we  and  they  are  lost  for  helpfulness  and  hope.  These 
mysteries  in  creation!  these  incomprehensibles  in 
Providence!  these  intricate  labyrinths!  these  tangled 
skeins  in  personal  experiences !  no  mind  can  stand  up 
long  under  their  awful  pressure,  unbuttressed  by  faith. 
Many  have  been  driven  into  insanity  by  their  realiza- 
tion and  constant  contemplation.  Faith  placidly  lays 
her  magnetic  palm  on  the  throbbing  brain,  conducts 
away  the  fever  of  its  pulsations,  and  hushes  their 
wild  flutter  and  tumult  to  rest. 

"The  Great  Spirit  seems  to  have  forgotten  us!"  was 
the  plaintive  wail  of  the  Indian  chiefs  in  conference 
with  a  Peace  Commission.  The  masses  of  the  heathen 
world  are  robbed,  many  of  them  tortured,  butchered 
by  remorseless  oppressors.  Then  I  returned,  and 
saw  all  the  oppressions  that  are  done  under  the 
sun:  and  behold  the  tears  of  such  as  were  oppressed, 


222  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

and  they  had  no  comforter!  and  on  the  side  of  their 
oppressors  there  was  power,  but  they  had  no  com- 
forter! Wherefore  I  praised  the  dead  who  are  al- 
ready dead,  more  than  the  living  who  are  yet  alive. 
Yea,  better  than  they  both,  is  he  who  hath  not  yet  been, 
who  hath  not  seen  the  evil  work  that  is  done  under 
the  sun.  Eccl.  iv:  1-4.  Thus  is  limned  society  in  his 
day,  as  he,  king  and  philosopher,  had  experienced. 
Thus  has  it  been  most  often  in  the  world's  history 
since.  Thus  it  is  chiefly  with  the  masses  of  men  now. 
There's  no  comfort, — rather,  pain,  bewilderment,  de- 
spair in  the  contemplation. 

When  we  are  thus  appalled  by  what  we  see,  hear, 
feel  and  know,  we  must  cry  to  the  All-Helping, — God 
and  Father:  Help  us!  Help  us  every  day!  One 
day's  impartation  of  succor  will  not  suffice.  Help  us 
every  hour!  Give  it  us  in  needed  measures!  Keep 
us,  reassure  us;  we  cannot  keep,  reassure  ourselves! 
In  all  our  stupefying,  blinding,  crushing  experience, 
help  us  to  look  to  Thee,  Thou  Tried  One!  for  sym- 
pathy. Then  may  we  be  qualified  to  minister  of  it  to 
others  in  the  great  shadow, — in  the  depths  of  their 
affliction;  rather,  we  shall  be  moved  to  turn  them 
from  resort  to  our  poor  ministrations  to  seek  the 
ejffectual  succor  in  Thee! 


ILLUSTRATIVE  AND  SUGGESTIVE. 


Next  to  the  originator  of  a  good  sentence  is  the  first  quoter  of  it. — Emerson. 


Suffering,  trial,  exposure  seem  to  be  necessary  elements  in  the 
education  of  a  moral  being.  .  .  .  To  them  we  owe  the  apostles 
and  martyrs,  we  owe  the  moral  force  and  deep  sympathy  of  private 
and  domestic  life,  we  owe  the  development  of  what  is  divine  in 
human  nature. — Dr.  Channing. 

Sorrow  is  the  great  birth-agony  of  immortal  powers, — sorrow  is 
the  great  searcher  and  revealer  of  hearts,  the  great  test  of  truth ; 
.  .  .  all  shams  and  realities  meet  in  the  fire  of  that  awful  fur- 
nace. .  .  .  Sorrow  is  divine.  .  .  .  The  crown  of  all  crowns 
has  been  one  of  thorns.  There  have  been  many  books  that  treat 
of  the  mystery  of  sorrow,  but  only  one  that  bids  us  glory  in  tribu- 
lation.—  The  Minister^  Wooing. 

Some  are  sifted  by  sickness ;  some  by  bankruptcy ;  some  by  be- 
ing slandered;  some  by  the  alternations  of  fortune;  some  by 
bereavements.  .  .  .  It  is  a  great  thing  for  a  man  to  have  the 
chaff  all  blown  out  of  him  ;  to  see  how,  when  troubles  come,  and 
the  winds  blow,  the  chaff  flies  from  the  heap  that  he  fancied  there 
was  of  his  wisdom  and  riches  and  power;  and  how  the  heap  di- 
minishes, so  that,  where  there  was  a  bushel,  there  is  only  a  peck. 
—H.  W.  Beecker. 

It  is  an  awful  moment  when  the  soul  begins  to  find  that  the 
props  on  which  it  has  blindly  rested  so  long  are,  many  of  them, 
rotten,  and  begins  to  feel  the  nothingness  of  many  of  the  tradi- 
tionary opinions  which  have  been  received  with  implicit  confi- 
dence, and  in  that  horrible  insecurity  begins  also  to  doubt,  whether 
there  be  anything  to  believe  at  all ;  .  .  .  when  this  life  has 
lost  its  meaning,  and  seems  shrivelled  into  a  span  ;  when  the  grave 


224  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

appears  to  be  the  end  of  all,  human  goodness  nothing  but  a  name, 
and  the  sky  above  this  Universe  a  dead  expanse,  black  \vith  the 
void  from  which  God  Himself  has  disappeared. — F.  W.Robertson. 

Great  afflictions — those  which  tear  up  the  roots  of  the  soul — are 
often  succeeded,  in  the  course  of  the  man's  history,  by  a  period  of 
skepticism.  The  fact  is,  such  afflictions  arc  disenchanting  powers; 
they  give  to  the  soul  an  earnestness  and  a  power  of  discrimination 
which  no  illusion  can  withstand. — Airs.  Stoive. — Nina  Gordon. 

There  is  so  much  of  sublimity  in  these  great  trials  of  faith,  that 
one  feels  raised  by  them  to  a  nearer  approach  to  the  Infinite,  to  a 
clearer  vision  of  the  realities  of  the  spiritual  world,  a  nearness, 
almost  oneness,  with  the  Father  of  Spirits.  Who  would  desire  to 
avert  any  thing  that  will  do  this  for  us.'' — Mrs.  L.  Ware  to  a 
Frien  d. — Mon  oir . 

Write  out  a  list  of  all  your  annoyances  and  worries.  You  will 
be  surprised  to  find  how  few  they  are,  and  how  small  they  look. 
.  .  .  Make  a  list  of  all  the  blessings  you  enjoy.  .  .  .  You 
will  see  reason  to  feel  heartily  ashamed  of  your  previous  state  of 
discontent. — Recreations  of  a  Country  Parson. 

All  great  souls  are  apt  to  be  in  thick  darkness  generally,  till  the 
eternal  ways  and  the  celestial  guiding  stars  disclose  themselves, 
and  the  vague  Abyss  of  Life  knits  itself  into  Firmaments  for  them. 
Temptations  in  the  wilderness,  Choices  of  Hercules,  and  the  like, 
in  succinct  or  loose  form,  are  appointed  for  every  man  that  will 
assert  a  soul  in  himself  and  be  a  man. — Carlyle^s  CromxvelL 

We  sometimes  speak  as  if  the  child,  dying  so  early,  had  accom- 
plished no  purpose ;  but  we  err.  The  child  does  much.  How 
m.uch  has  this  little  boy  done  for  you  all !  How  much  warmth  he 
has  shed  through  your  hearts !  How  many  holy  feelings  he  has 
awakened!  How  much  happiness  he  has  given!  What  a  lovely 
image  he  has  left  behind  him !  And  what  a  new  bond  he  has 
formed  between  you  and  the  future  world!  Is  all  this  nothing.'' — 
Dr.  Chanjiing. 

We  cannot  part  with  our  friends  We  cannot  let  our  angels  go. 
We  do  not  see  that  they  only  go  out,  that  archangels  may  come 
in.  .  .  .  We  sit  and  weep  in  vain.  The  voice  of  the  Almighty 
saith,  "  Up  and  onward  for  evermore!" — Emerson. 

Ah,  well!     God   is  above  all,  and  gracious  alike  in  what  He 


THE  CHRIST  OF  SYMPATHY.  225 

conceals  and  what  He  discloses; — benignant  and  bounteous,  as 
well  when  He  reclaims  as  when  He  bestows.  In  a  few  years,  at 
farthest,  our  loved  and  lost  ones  will  welcome  us  to  their  home. — 
Horace  Greeley  on  the  death  of  his  ^'-  Pickie^''  in  Memoirs  of  Marga- 
ret Fuller. 

Kind  words,  sympathizing  attentions,  watchfulness  against 
wounding  men's  sensitiveness, — these  cost  very  little,  but  they  are 
priceless  in  their  value.  .  .  .  It  is  the  omission  of  these  things 
which  is  irreparable! — F.  W.  Robertson. 

His  bearing  towards  inferiors  was  marked  by  the  most  polished 
delicacy;  his  consideration  for  the  comfort  of  servants  was  so 
great,  that  they  adored  him.  ...  He  spoke  much  about  the 
wrongs  of  woman ;  and  it  is  very  touching  to  know  that  during 
the  last  year  of  his  life,  he  frequently  went  forth  at  night  and  en- 
deavored to  redeem  the  fallen  women  of  Brighton.  .  .  .  He 
was  often  crushed  to  the  earth  by  the  thought  of  the  guilt  and 
suffering  of  Humanity.  He  felt  them  personally,  acutely,  as  if 
they  were  his  own. — Biography  of  F.  W.  Robertson. 

Large  natural  sympathies  are  good,  but  large  supernatural  are 
better;  even  such  as  had  partly  sounded  the  compassions  of  God, 
and  had  their  own  private  Gethsemane.  .  .  .  And  this  is  the 
true  hiding  of  power.  A  great,  right  soul,  bearing  visibly  such 
loads  from  God,  will  never  have  a  dreary,  dreamy,  far-off  way, 
but  will  go  directly  into  men's  bosoms  by  the  certificate  of  his  own 
true  feeling  and  his  manly  sense  of  man.  Even  his  "  good  morn- 
ing "  will  go  through  them  as  a  welcome  word  from  some  beauti- 
ful otherwhere  not  of  this  world. 

HoAv  many  are  there,  who  by  reason  of  poverty,  obscurity,  in- 
firmity of  mind  or  body,  can  never  hope  to  do  much  by  action, — 
who  often  sigh  at  the  contemplation  of  their  want  of  power  to 
effect  anj  thing. 

There  is  no  class  of  oeings  more  to  be  pitied  than  defeated  men 
who  have  gotten  nothing  out  of  their  defeat,  but  that  dry  sorrow 
of  the  world  which  makes  it  only  more  barren,  and  therefore  more 
insupportable.  .  .  .  How  many  are  there  who  are  finally 
driven  out  of  every  plan  they  have  laid  for  their  course  of  life. — 
Dr.  Bushnell. 
15 


226  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

There  is  not  a  servant  that  you  employ  who  is  not  just  like  you 
in  conscience,  in  sympathy,  in  love,  in  hope,  in  ambition,  in  pride, 
and  frequently  in  delicacy  of  feeling;  .  .  .  who  does  not,  like 
you,  desire  recognition,  praise,  gentleness,  forbearance,  patience; 
.  .  .  who  is  not  sacred  in  the  sight  of  God ;  .  .  .  who  has 
not  his  guardian  angels  round  about  him. 

In  order  to  ascertain  what  your  missionary  spirit  is,  I  need  only 
to  find  out  how  you  treat  those  that  are  around  about  you — your 
servants,  your  subordinates,  your  adversaries,  those  that  are 
poor  and  unpopular  and  despised  in  the  community. 

It  is  hard  to  see  the  thunderous  processes  of  industry  go  past 
your  skilled  hand  and  willing  feet,  and  you  not  be  called  to  take 
part  and  lot  in  them. 

I  have  seen  men  that  were  held  back  only  as  by  a  hair  from 
self-destruction,  on  account  of  the  anguish  and  agony  of  feelings 
induced  by  mere  business  matters. — H.  W.  Beecher. 

He  was  the  brother  and  the  father  of  all  orphaned  and  widowed 
hearts.  .  .  .  He  was  trusted  with  the  most  delicate  and  im- 
portant secrets  by  women  of  all  ranks,  from  princesses  to  domestic 
drudges.  .  .  .  Repentant  sinners  sought  consolation  in  a  con- 
fession to  him ;  and  in  some  cases  he  was  employed  to  make  repa- 
ration, where  a  breath  or  a  whisper  w^ould  have  tarnished  the 
honor  of  the  parties.— Z//e  of  Jean  Paul  Richter. 

The  characteristic  trait  of  Margaret  [Fuller],  to  which  all  her 
talents  and  acquirements  were  subordinate,  was  sympathy, — uni- 
versal sympathy.  She  had  that  large  intelligence  and  magnan- 
imity which  enabled  her  to  comprehend  the  struggles  and  tri- 
umphs of  every  form  of  character. — Meynoirs. 

It  cannot  be  denied,  that  there  are  men  in  this  world  in  whose 
lot  failure  seems  to  be  the  rule-  Everything  to  which  they  put 
their  hand  breaks  down  or  goes  amiss. — Recreations  of  a  Country 
Parson. 

You  have  "succeeded"  through  life!  And  why.?  Because 
you  came  into  life  at  a  happy  season.  You  took  the  tide  at  its 
influx.  And,  if  that  moment  had  been  lost,  no  effort,  however 
strenuous,  could  have  brought  back  the  golden  opportunity. 
Some  great  public  event,  over  which  you  had  no  control,  forward- 
ed your  private  plans.     An  earlier  occurrence  of  a  storm,  the 


THE  CHRIST  OF  SYMPATHY.  227 

failure  of  others  in  business,  a  commercial  revulsion,  a  war  might 
have  involved  you  in  inextricable  embarrassment. — Dr.  Channing. 
If  you  choose  to  represent  the  various  parts  in  life  by  holes  in  a 
table  of  different  shapes, — some  circular,  some  triangular,  some 
square,  some  oblong, — and  the  persons  acting  these  parts  by  bits 
of  v^^ood  of  similar  shapes,  we  shall  generally  find  that  the  trian- 
gular person  has  got  into  the  square  hole,  the  oblong  into  the 
triangular,  while  the  square  person  has  squeezed  himself  into  the 
round  hole. — Sydney  Smith. 

Tortured  by  fierce  experiences:  consumed 

Through  fiery  ordeal  of  implacable  years ; 

Shut  out  from  hope:  beset  with  pains  and  fears; 

Pierced  by  sharp  thorns  where  roses  should  have  bloomed! 

Thy  buried  pangs  exhumed  and  re-exumed. 

Without  a  single  thought  or  sight  that  cheers, 

How  sad  thy  bitter  lot ;  yet,  he  who  steers 

His  bark  above  the  grave  where  lie  entombed, 

In  time's  deep  sea,  the  fruits  of  vain  desire, 

Blighted  ere  ripe,  may  hold  a  nobler  way ! 

And  though  rough  storms  about  his  course  may  fire 

Their  thunderbolts,  and  waves  and  winds  may  play 

With  his  frail  vessel  like  a  toy,  yet  higher 

Than  storm,  and  cloud  and  wind  shall  rise  his  day 

— Songs  of  a  Wayfarer^  by  TV.  Davis. — Living  Age. 

Not  all  who  seem  to  fail  have  failed  indeed ; 

Not  all  who  fail  have  therefore  worked  in  vain ; 
For  all  our  acts  to  many  issues  lead ; 

And  out  of  earnest  purpose,  pure  and  plain, 
Enforced  by  honest  toil  of  hand  or  brain, 

The  Lord  will  fashion  in  his  own  good  time 
(Be  this  the  laborer's  proudly  humble  creed) 

Such  ends  as,  to  His  wisdom,  fittest  chime 
With  His  vast  love's  eternal  harmonies. 

There  is  no  failure  for  the  good  and  wise : 
What  though  thy  seed  should  fall  by  the  wayside, 

And  the  birds  snatch  it ; — yet  the  birds  are  fed ; 
Or  they  may  bear  it  far  across  the  tide, 

To  give  rich  harvests  after  thou  art  dead. 
—Politics  Jor  the  People,  1848. — Quoted  in  ''Character'''  by  Smiley. 

Of  all  the  dull,  dead  weights  man  ever  bore. 
Sure,  none  can  wear  the  soul  with  discontent. 
Like  consciousness  of  power  unused. 

— Kathrina. 

The  things  that  are  really  for  thee  gravitate  to   thee.     You  are 


228  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

running  to  seek  your  friend.  .  .  .  If  you  do  not  find  him,  will 
you  not  acquiesce  that  it  is  best  you  should  not  fin  d  him  ?  for 
there  is  a  power,  which,  as  it  is  in  you,  is  in  him  also,  and  could 
therefore  very  well  bring  you  together,  if  it  were  for  the  best 
You  are  preparing  with  eagerness  to  go  and  render  a  service  to 
which  your  talent  and  your  taste  invite  you,  the  love  of  men  and  the 
hope  of  fame.  Has  it  not  occurred  to  you,  that  you  have  no  right 
to  go,  unless  you  are  equally  willing  to  be  prevented  from  going? 
O,  believe,  as  thou  livest,  that  every  sound  that  is  spoken  over  the 
round  world,  which  thou  oughtest  to  hear,  will  vibrate  on  thine 
ear!  Every  proverb,  every  book,  every  by-word  that  belongs  to 
thee  for  aid  and  comfort,  shall  surely  come  home  through  open  or 
winding  passages.  Every  friend  whom,  not  thy  fantastic  will,  but 
the  great  and  tender  heart  in  thee  craveth,  shall  lock  thee  in  his 
embrace.  — Emerson. 

Serene  I  fold  my  hands  and  wait. 

Nor  care  for  wind  or  tide  or  sea ; 
I  rave  no  more  'gainst  time  or  fate, 
For  lo !  my  own  shall  come  to  me. 

— JoJui  Burroughs. 
[Find  and  read  the  balance  of  these  stanzas.] 
It  takes  the  world  a  good  while  to  acknowledge  its  poor  relations. 
— Atlantic  Monthly ^  Dec.  1867. 

And  here  I  sat  a  long,  long  time,  waiting  patiently  for  the  world 
to  know  me,  and  sometimes  wondering  why  it  did  not  know  me 
sooner,  or  whether  it  would  ever  know  me  at  all, — at  least,  till  I 
were  in  my  grave.  .  .  .  And  now  I  begin  to  understand,  why 
was  imprisoned  so  many  years  in  this  lonely  chamber,  and  why  I 
could  never  break  through  the  viewless  bolts  and  bars. — Hawthorne 
from  Family  Mansion^  Salem^  Oct.  4,  iS^g. 

When  you  get  into  a  tight  place,  and  everything  goes  against 
you,  till  it  seems  as  if  you  couldn't  hold  on  a  minute  longer,  never 
give  Tip  then^  for  that's  just  the  place  and  time  that  the  tide'll  turn. 
Never  trust  to  prayer  without  using  every  means  in  your  power, 
and  never  use  the  means  without  trusting  in  prayer. — Old  Town 
Folks. 

Through  these  eighteen  years  He  w^aited  until  the  Father  should 
call  Him  to  the  field  He  was  to  fill.     He  waited,  day  after  day, 


THE  CHRIST  OF  SYMPATHY.  229 

year  after  year,  in  contentment  and  peace,  while  life  seemed  to  be 
moving  no  nearer  to  its  goal.     .     .     . 

How  trying  it  is,  as  measured  by  a  human  standard,  when  one 
is  conscious  of  being  able  and  called  to  do  something  great,  to  be 
obliged  to  live  in  obscurity  and  inaction ;  how  human  self-will 
chafes  when  its  way  forward  is  hedged  up! — President  Woolsey. 

There  are  many  persons  who  are  competent  to  discharge  higher 
trusts,  but  cannot  get  up  to  them.  .  .  .  society  is  full  of  per- 
sons who  are  below  their  appropriate  level.  .  .  .  You  see  on 
every  hand,  among  women,  instances  the  most  marked  of  persons 
who  are  fitted  for  higher  places  than  they  occupy.  And  there  are 
not  a  few  of  these  instances  in  which  patient  waiting  for  a  better 
day  is  rendered  more  beautiful  than  in  almost  any  others.  .  .  . 
Are  there  not  multitudes  of  such  persons  that  are  conscious, 
the  greatest  part  of  their  inward  nature  is  buried  and  has  no  func- 
tion .?...!  think  some  of  the  noblest  natures  walk  mostly  in 
disguise.  .  .  .  There  are  multitudes  to-day  that  see  the  world 
going  by  them,  conscious  that  they  have  powers  equal  to  any  that 
are  in  exercise.  There  are  not  a  few  who  are  deriving  their  pit- 
tance of  bread  from  men  whom  they  greatly  surpass.  ,  .  . 
Waiting  is  as  much  a  matter  of  God's  appointing  as  serving.  And 
he  that  in  life  knows  how  to  wait,  knows  how  to  serve  God  as  ef- 
fectually, as  the  man  that  knows  how  to  work.  .  .  .  Jesus  was 
restrained,  hedged  up,  limited,  confined  to  a  sphere  infinitely  be- 
low His  appropriate  one.  And  the  very  glory  of  His  example  is 
that  He  laid  Himself  aside,  and  became  something  far  below  Himself 
— a  human  being — and  humbled  Himself  unto  death. — H.  W. 
Beecher. 

Be  patient,  be  confiding,  you  do  not  choose  your  sphere.  Pre- 
pare yourself  for  greater  usefulness  by  fidelity  in  the  path  Prov- 
idence now  marks  out  for  you. — Dr.  Channing. 

The  world  is  for  him  who  hath  patience. — Italian  Proverb. 

A  stone  that  is  fit  for  the  wall  is  not  left  in  the  way. — Persian 
Proverb. 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  knowing  a  man  intimately.  Every 
soul  is,  for  the  greater  part  of  its  mortal  life,  isolated  from  every 
other. — Atlantic  Monthly^  1862. 

A  man  or  a  woman,  who  has  not  toiled  and  suffered,  can  no 


230  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

« 

more  be  great  than  a  lump  of  ore,  which  has  never  felt  the  furnace, 
can  be  a  golden  crown,  or  a  block  of  marble  untouched  by  a  mal- 
let and  chisel,  be  a  lovely  statue. — 6".  B,  Gould. 

It  is  better,  at  least  in  great  trouble,  to  be  at  first  ivithout  humau 
sy7)ipathy  altogether. —  The  Grey  son  Letters. 

"What  a  man  can  do  in  conjunction  with  others  does  not  test  the 
man.     Tell  us  what  he  can  do  alone. 

Men  of  Elijah's  stamp,  and  placed  under  Elijah's  circumstances, 
must  make  up  their  minds  to  live  without  sympathy.  Their  feel- 
ings will  be  misunderstood,  and  their  projects  incomprehended. 
They  must  be  content  to  live  alone. 

We  touch  other  human  spirits  only  at  a  point  or  two.  In  the 
deepest  departments  of  thought  and  feeling  we  are  alone,  and  the 
desire  to  escape  that  loneliness  finds  for  itself  a  voice  in  prayer. — 
F.  W.Robertson. 

How  long  we  may  live  in  the  same  house,  sit  at  the 
same  table,  hold  daily  converse  with  friends,  to  whom  and  by 
whom,  these  doors  of  the  inner  nature  are  closed! — Old-Town 
Folks. 

Let  a  man  remember  the  days  of  darkness,  for  they  shall  be 
many. — Ecc.  xi:  8. 

The  spirit,  that  I  have  seen 

May  be  a  devil :  and  the  devil  hath  power 
To  assume  a  pleasing  shape ;  yea,  and,  perhaps 
Out  of  my  weakness,  and  my  melancholy 
As  he  is  very  potent  with  such  spirits, 
Abuses  me  to  damn  me. 

— Hamlet. 
Mrs.  Stowe,  in  one  of  her  "Atlantic  "  papers,  refers  to  a  lady  w  ho 
declared  she  knew  that  at  certain  periods,  she  was  possessed  with 
the  Devil,  and  at  such  hours  kept  silent. 

A  phrenologist  once  told  me,  that,  whenever  he  felt  these  evil 
influences.  ...  he  imposed  perfect  silence  upon  himself  for 
the  rest  of  the  day.  Madame  Du  Deffland  observes:  "We  must 
use  address  with  ourselves,  if  we  wish  to  avoid  the  most  terrible 
sufferings." — Reininiscences  of  Thought  and  Feeling. 

Our  moods  do  not  believe  in  each  other.  To-day  I  am  full  of 
thoughts,  and  can  write  what  I  please ;  I  see  no  reason  why  I 
should  not  have  the  same  thought,  the  same  power  of  expression, 


THE  CHRIST  OF  SYMPATHY.  231 

to-morrow.  What  I  write,  whilst  I  write  it,  seems  the  most  nat- 
ural thing  in  the  world ;  but  yesterday  I  saw  a  dreary  vacuity  in 
this  direction  in  which  now  I  see  so  much ;  and  a  month  hence,  I 
doubt  not,  I  shall  wonder  who  he  was  that  wrote  so  many  contin- 
uous pages. — Emerson. 

I  bless  God  I  have  been  inured  to  difficulties,  and  I  never 
found  God  failing  when  I  trusted  in  Him. — O.  Crofnwell. 

Even  the  salvation  of  the  world  is  accomplished  by  treacherj^ 
false  witness  and  a  cross. 

All  temptations  are  but  seemings.  The  devils  bait  their  hook, 
never  with  truths,  always  with  illusions.  Nor  were  the  tempta- 
tions any  the  less  real,  or  Satanic,  as  being  phantoms  of  exhaustion. 

Now  a  wise  man  is  one  who  understands  himself  well  enough 
to  make  due  allowance  for  such  insane  moods,  never  concluding 
that  a  thing  is  thus  or  thus,  because  just  now  it  bears  that  look; 
waiting  often  to  see  what  a  sleep  or  a  walk,  or  a  cool  revision,  or 
perhaps  a  considerable  turn  of  repentance  will   do. — Dr.  Bushnell. 

In  the  Avondale  calamity,  one  hundred  and  eight  or  more  min- 
ers were  suffocated,  twelve  or  fifteen  of  whom  were  young  boys. 
Seventy-three  wives  were  made  widows,  and  one  hundred  and 
fifty-four  children  were  made  orphans.  A  gray-haired  father  who 
had  three  sons  in  the  mine,  sat  with  his  two  youngest  boys,  twelve 
and  fifteen  years  old,  one  clasped  in  either  arm.  So  firm  was  his 
embrace  of  one,  even  in  death,  that  the  corpses  could  not  be  sep- 
arated. Other  fathers  had  their  sons  locked  in  their  arms ;  and 
there  were  two  little  brothers,  with  no  parents,  who  lay  in  each 
other's  embrace  as  if  in  peaceful  slumber.  One  poor  woman  lost 
a  nephew,  an  uncle,  a  father,  a  brother,  and  a  husband.  Another 
lost  every  male  member  of  her  family — a  husband  and  three 
sons. 

Women  with  children  clinging  to  their  nightdresses  stood  par- 
alyzed with  fear,  and  were  scarcely  able  to  move.  Others  who 
were  on  deck  swooned  away  and  remained  where  they  had  fallen, 
while  many  of  the  remaining  women  and  children  ran  around  the 
deck  screaming  and  crying.  Husbands  were  looking  for  their 
wives,  while  little  children,  who  in  the  excitement,  had  become 
separated  from  their  parents,  ran  from  room  to  room  in  search  of 
them  and  crying  as  though  their  hearts  would  break.     The  two 


232  THE  CHRIST   IN  LIFE. 

children  of  a  young  couple  lay  asleep — one  baby,  six  weeks  old, 
the  other  a  boy  of  three.  The  father  took  the  biggest  child  in  his 
arms,  the  mother  clung  to  the  infant,  and  the  two  struggled  to  the 
deck.  The  saloon  was  knee  deep  in  water  by  this  time,  and  in 
less  than  five  minutes  man  and  wife  were  in  the  water.  The 
waves  ran  high,  and  soon  husband  and  wife  were  swept  apart. 
The  former  lost  strength,  relaxed  his  hold  on  the  child,  and  both 
were  drowned.  The  mother  held  her  babe  above  the  hungry 
waters  until  her  strength,  too,  was  exhausted,  and  then  a  wave 
larger  than  the  rest  dashed  it  from  her  arms,  and  she  saw  it  sink 
slowly  to  the  depths  below.  Just  as  she  was  exhausted,  and  after 
the  life  preserver  slipped  from  beneath  her  arms,  the  Moccasin 
came  up,  and  she  was  recalled  to  life.  "I  have  my  husband  here," 
she  said,  "but  they  can  never  find  my  babies  in  so  large  a  sea." — 
Wreck  of  the  Steatner  Narragansett. 

Of  the  telescoping  of  the  M.  C.  R.  R.,  at  Jackson,  Oct.  1879,  a 
passenger  relates,  that  he  could  scarcely  find  room  for  his  foot  in 
the  telescoped  car,  so  thick  were  the  bodies  of  the  dead  and 
wounded.  The  groans  were  horrible.  Children  were  calling  for 
parents,  and  in  the  inky  blackness  of  the  wrecked  car,  mothers 
could  be  heard  crying  for  their  children,  husbands  for  their  wives, 
and  wives  for  their  husbands.  The  body  of  one  little  girl  was 
handed  out,  whose  head  had  been  literally  smashed  to  a  pulp,  the 
brains  protruding  from  the  gaping  wounds.  A  little  boy  was 
passed  through  the  window  who  was  also  terribly  smashed.  A 
family  consisting  of  father,  mother,  and  one  little  boy,  four  years 
of  age,  were  found  crushed  beneath  the  pile  of  splintered  timber. 
The  husband  and  wife  were  dead.  The  mother's  arm  was  clasped 
so  tightly  about  the  child,  that  the  little  one  could  not  be  extricated 
from  this  veritable  embrace  of  death  for  several  minutes.  The 
little  fellow  was  finally  gotten  out  of  the  wreck,  after  two  hours' 
labor,  when  it  was  found  that  one  of  his  legs  was  broken. 

At  Ashtabula,  O.,  there  was  a  combination  of  all  that  is  horrible 
in  this  disaster — the  blinding  snow-storm;  the  raging  wind ;  the 
terrible  cold ;  the  deadly  crash  of  the  bridge;  the  fatal  fall  on  to 
the  ice,  seventy-five  feet  below;  the  water  and  the  consuming  fire; 
the  shrieks  of  the  wounded  ;  the  groans  of  the  dying;  the  ghastly 
dead ;  the  piteous  cries  for  help. 


THE  CHRIST  OF  SYMPATHY.  233 

At  the  Hudson  River  railroad  calamity,  February,  1871,  an  en- 
tire family  had  perished  at  one  fell  stroke,  leaving  not  a  single  one. 
The  father  and  mother  lay  side  by  side,  beautifully  enshrouded, — 
but  their  disfigured  faces  wrapped  in  white  linen  and  shut  out 
from  view.  Near  by  were  two  smaller  caskets,  one  containing 
the  son,  and  the  other  the  eldest  daughter.  The  first  was  a  fair- 
haired  boy,  aged  about  12  years.  He  was  not  mutilated  in  the 
least,  and  the  expression  on  his  face  was  remarkable.  He  appeared 
as  if  he  had  closed  his  eyes,  simply  feigning  sleep.  The  arms  of 
his  sister,  a  girl  two  years  younger  than  the  boy,  were  folded 
across  her  breast,  and  the  playful  hands  were  white  as  snow,  save 
the  two  fingers  that  were  burned  to  a  black  crisp.  On  one  finger 
of  the  left  hand  she  wore  a  tiny  gold  ring,  which  she  carried  to  the 
grave.  On  the  other  side  of  the  parents  was  the  baby  laid  out  in 
a  small  casket,  and  enshrouded  in  snowy  white.  ...  A  child 
— a  babe — scarcely  old  enough  to  talk  plain,  was  picked  up  near 
one  of  the  wrecked  cars  by  a  brakeman.  It  showed  some  signs  of 
life,  and  the  moment  it  discovered  that  an  arm  encircled  its  waist, 
it  nestled  up  closely  to  the  man,  uttered  the  words  "  papa,  mamma," 
and  died  without  the  contraction  of  a  muscle.  A  beautiful  smile 
played  on  the  lips  after  death. 

The  Ville  du  Havre  was  oscillating  on  the  sea,  one  mast  crush- 
ing as  it  fell  a  boat  containing  more  than  thirty  persons  and  ready 
to  put  to  sea.  A  group  of  ladies  were  praying  aloud,  and  taking 
their  last  farewell  of  those  near  them.  One  young  woman,  of 
about  twenty,  held  her  mother  in  a  close  embrace,  and  said, 
"Courage,  dear  mamma,  a  struggle  of  a  few  seconds  and  we  shall 
enter  heaven  together."  The  four  little  things  whom  we  had 
brought  up  from  below,  after  a  few  words  of  supplication  to  God, 
said:  " Let  us  pray  again."  A  Catholic  priest,  regardless  of  the 
peril,  and  thinking  only  of  his  ministry,  went  from  group  to 
group,  giving  absolution  to  those  who  repented.  ...  A  yard 
was  floating,  to  which  more  than  twenty  persons  were  clinging; 
at  every  instant  some  heads  disappeared,  and  soon  only  two  re- 
mained, and  those  were  at  last  saved  by  a  boat  at  the  moment 
when  their  strength  was  about  to  fail.  Cries  of  <'  Save  me!  save 
me ! "  resounded  on  all  sides.    "  Oh,  my  father ! "  "  Oh,  my  child ! " 


234  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

Then  long,  agonizing  groans  of  despair;  then  silence,  interrupted 
only  by  the  sinister  dasli  of  the  Avaves. 

In  the  burning  of  the  steamer  McGill,  on  the  Mississippi  river, 
1871,  none  of  the  females  -were  saved.  All  were  lost.  Two  fe- 
males were  emigrants;  one  was  seen  to  leap  overboard,  with  her 
child  in  her  arms,  Avhen  the  fire  approached  the  forward  deck. 
As  she  leaped  from  the  guards,  she  piteously  exclaimed,  "God 
help  us,"  and,  clasping  her  little  babe  to  her  bosom,  she  sprang 
into  the  dark,  surging  tide,  and  the  waters  passed  over  her  head 
and  that  of  her  babe  forever.  The  other  female  was  also  a  mother, 
and  she  was  to  be  seen  cowering  on  the  deck,  with  her  little  ones 
held  firmly  to  her  breast,  as  she  devoutly  prayed  to  the  great  Je- 
hovah in  behalf  of  herself  and  her  offspring. 

During  the  war  between  Turkey  and  Russia,  when  a  train  left 
Tatar  Bazardjik,  thousands  upon  thousands  of  fugitive  Turks 
clutched  to  the  train ;  they  clambered  on  to  the  tops  of  the  car- 
riages, the  steps  and  buffers.  They  even  put  their  women  and 
children  on  the  rails  to  prevent  the  engines  from  advancing. 
Further  on  we  met  trucks  full  of  these  wretched  people,  scores  of 
them  crowded  into  sheep  carriages,  layers  one  above  the  other, 
waiting  to  be  carried  on.  In  many  instances  these  living  truck- 
loads  had  remained  for  five  days  stationary,  not  a  man,  woman,  or 
child  daring  to  leave  them  for  fear  of  losing  their  places.  The 
scene  was  most  horrible.  I  saw  wretched  little  children  thrown 
away,  starved  and  frozen  to  death,  into  the  snow ;  they  Avere  dying 
in  cart-loads. 

Women  in  straight-jackets  and  leather  muffs,  and  chained  about 
the  waist  in  their  cells,  all  of  them, — no  wandering  vacantly  after 
one  here;  women  who  danced,  and  howled,  and  sung;  women 
who  ranted  and  raved,  cursed  and  shouted,  and  screeched  ;  wom- 
en who  glared  like  wild  animals,  and  who  hissed  like  serpents, 
howled  like  wolves,  and  prayed  and  blasphemed ;  women  in  every 
conceivable  form  of  horror,  and  with  that  peculiar  wild  beast 
smell  that  always  characterizes  the  true  maniac.  The  keepers  in 
this  building  have  every  third  day  to  change  off,  and  to  seek  need» 
ful  quiet  and  repose. — Insajie  Asylum. — Cor.  of  Chicago   Tribune. 

The  qualities  which  calculate  to  shine  are  exactly  those  which 


THE  CHRIST  OF  SYMPATHY.  235 

minister  to  the  worst  ruin.  God's  highest  gifts, — talent,  beauty, 
feeling,  imagination,  power, — they  carry  with  them  the  possibil- 
ity of  highest  heaven,  and  the  lowest  hell.  Be  sure,  that  it  is  by 
that  which  is  highest  in  you  that  you  may  be  lost.  It  is  the  aw- 
ful warning,  and  not  the  excuse  of  evil,  that  the  light  which  leads 
astray  is  light  from  heaven. 

There  are  temptations  to  which  some  are  subjected  in  a  long 
series,  in  which,  to  have  stood  upright  would  have  demonstrated 
not  a  man's  but  an  angel's  strength. 

The  very  purity  of  these  aspirations  becomes  a  dangerous  gift. 
They  lie  very  close  to  what  is  wrong;  they  transform  themselves 
very  easily  into  tempters, — Lucifers  cast  down  from  heaven. 

It  cannot  be,  that  God  has  given  us  beings  here  to  love,  and 
that  to  love  them  intensely  is  idolatry. 

yhe  tenderer  the  heart  is,  the  more  it  is  exposed  to  being  torn, 
rent,  and  tortured  in  separations,  bereavements,  deaths,  broken 
hearts. — F.  W.  Robertson. 

It  is  obvious  enough,  what  jeopardy  must  attend  the  playing  of 
the  inflammable  temperament  and  weak  conscience  about  the 
conscious  edges  of  relations,  on  which  such  thunders  of  soul  and 
fate  hang  ready  to  be  unleashed  at  a  look. 

Whenever  there  is  danger  that  friendship  will  become  another 
passion ,  where  there  are  legal  or  moral  duties  forbidding  it,  the 
true  course  is  not  to  dismiss  and  renounce  the  friendship,  but  to 
preserve  it  in  its  undegenerate  integrity,  by  strengthening  the 
sanctions,  restraints,  and  obligations  that  should  properly  guide 
and  guard  it. 

So  he  need  not  repudiate  the  friendship  of  a  woman,  because 
it  may  lead  to  harm ;  he  should  cherish  the  friendship,  and  be- 
ware of  the  harm. — Friendship  of  Women. — Alger. 

When  I  see  a  mind  thirsting  for  objects  of  affection,  on  whom 
to  pour  forth  an  intense  love,  and  from  whom  to  receive  a  like 
love  in  return,  I  discern  in  this  an  exhalted  nature,  a  spirit  meant 
to  extend  itself  forever,  to  know  and  to  love  God,  and  to  love 
more  and  more  what  is  good  and  beautiful  in  His  universe.  .  .  . 
Understand  and  honor  yourself.  Feel  that  you  have  within  you 
a  spirit  too  divine  ever  to  be  given  up  in  despair,  or  to  be  sacri- 
ficed   to    any    earthly    disappointment.      Feel    how  unjust  you 


236  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

are  to  yourself,  in  suffering  any  human  being  to  arrest  in  its  pro- 
gress sucn  a  mind  as  yours.  Remember  that  you  were  made  to 
love  infinitely  and  to  love  forever,  and  let  no  ill-requited  affection 
shut  up  this  unfathomed  fountain. — Dr.  CJunining. 

There  are  secret  and  yet  dominant  sins,  which  lie  in  such  sen- 
sitive recesses  of  our  nature,  that  the  heart  shuts  convulsively 
over  them,  whenever  a  searching  eye  draws  nigh.  And  there  are 
other  sins  more  fearful,  which  are  stationed,  as  it  were,  at  the  por- 
tals of  the  heart,  warding  off  scrutiny  with  flaming  sword 
and  flushed  brow.  These  sins,  so  subtle,  so  secret,  so  defiant 
in  their  fear  of  discovery,  are  hidden  from  maiCs  sight,  yet 
they  form  often  the  burden  of  our  life,  and,  if  there  be  no  help,  it's 
controlling  power.  We  must  sit  alone  with  them,  and  struggle 
alone,  for  our  fellow-creatures  cannot  aid  us  in  this  dread  en- 
counter. Man  knows  not  with  w^hom  we  are  fighting,  or  for  whftt 
we  fight. — Francis  Wharton,  D.  D. 

The  common  English  verdict  is  right  as  well  as  charitable, 
which  supposes,  that  in  every  such  case  reason  has  become  un- 
hinged and  responsibility  is  gone. — Recreations  of  a  Country  Parson. 

Most  of  the  styled  accidental  drownings  in  the  waters  adjacent 
New  York  City,  are  said  to  be  suicides.  Numerous  bodies  of 
such  float  in  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco.  In  Paris,  suicides  aver- 
age two  each  day.  Eternity  alone  will  reveal  the  numerous  in- 
stances in  which  the  design  was  harbored  but  not  executed. 

Thus  one  wrote,  ere  she  took  her  life  in  St.  Louis,  inconsolable 
on  account  of  the  loss  of  her  youthful  husband:  "I  cannot  live; 
life  to  me  is  torture.  Be  so  kind  and  do  not  separate  me  from 
him  who  was  my  all  on  earth.  Don't  call  me  insane,  for  I  am  not. 
I  had  fully  six  weeks'  time  to  reflect  upon  the  deed.  You  know 
what  I  suffered,  and  there  can  be  no  greater  pleasure  than  to  go 
where  he  is.  All  I  request  is  to  be  in  the  same  grave  with  him." 
Oh,  could  she  have  been  directed  to  the  friend  of  Mary  and  Martha 
in  her  hour  of  woe ! 

H.  F.  P.  an  interesting  young  man  of  twenty-one  years,  of  good 
parentage,  committed  suicide  in  Chicago.  It  was  said  he  had 
been  very  unfortunate  in  all  his  transactions,  and  his  frequent 
failures  preyed  heavily  on  his  mind. 


THE  CHRIST  OF  SYMPATHY.  237 

Another  interesting  joung  man  in  Cincinnati,  "C.  W.  A."  left 
this  wail  behind  him :  "Mj  entire  life  has  been  one  series  of  er- 
rors, or  mistakes  and  failures — in  every  enterprise  and  under- 
taking, both  of  private  and  business  nature,  some  of  which  have 
been  very  dear  to  me ;  yet  not  entirely  through  want  of  tenacity 
or  strength  of  purpose." 

Doubtless:  sometimes  they  were  found  in  thy  congregations, 
face  to  thy  face,  looking  into  thine  eyes,  and  hanging  upon  thy 
utterances,— representative  of  the  sympathizing  Christ!  Did  it 
happen  on  those  occasions,  that  thou  had'st  a  word  of  consolation,  of 
sympathy,  for  souls  so  tried  as  theirs? 

Cowards,  though  it  may  be  said  they  were,  destitute  of  mental 
stamina  to  bear  up  manfully  under  the  burdens  of  sorrows  prov- 
identially imposed  upon  them ;  they  needed  sympathy.  Boast  not 
of  thy  strength,  O  confident  and  self-reliant  one!  the  Devil  may 
prove  more  than  a  match  for  thee,  in  some  crisis  of  weakness  and 
despair,  some  sudden  impulse  to  the  suicidal  act. 

In  the  satchel  of  a  fallen,  beautiful  girl,  were  found  the  follow- 
ing lines  in  manuscript,  after  she  had  leaped  overboard  from  a 
steamer  en-route  from  New  York  to  Boston : 

I  can  no  longer  endure  this  polluting. 

This  festering  breath ; 
Gladly  I  fly  to  the  refuge  that's  left  me— 
Merciful  death. 
Not  sad*y,  tearfully, 
But  gladly,  cheerfully. 
Go  to  my  death. 

Priests  may  refuse  to  grant  sanctified  burial 

Here  unto  me; 
Father,  I  thank  Thee !  a  blessing  is  always  held 
Over  the  sea. 
Aye,  in  its  wildest  foam, 
Aye,  in  its  thickest  gloom, 
Blest  is  the  sea. 

Welcome,  O  Sea!  with  thy  breakings  and  dashings. 

That  never  shall  cease ; 
Down  in  thy  angriest,  stormiest  waters 
Oh!  hide  me  in  peace. 
Say  to  the  weary  face, 
"Come  to  thy  resting  place. 
Slumber  in  peace." 


238  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

Proud  Pharisee  of  a  woman!  vho  passest  by  an  erring  sister 
with  a  haughty  look  of  conscious  superiority,  dost  thou  know 
what  temptation  is,  with  strong  feeling  and  mastering  opportunity  ? 
—F.  W.  Robertson. 

It  was  only  a  woman's  cry,— 

It  was  only  a  woman's  moan, — 
Only  a  woman's  heart  that  broke: 

Let  her  alone! 
It  was  only  an  idle  tale, — 

What  if  it  does  her  wrong? 
What  will  her  words  avail? 

Numbers  alone  are  strong; 
She  is  but  one.     You  need  not  fear ; 
The  shadows  will  follow  her  many  a  year: 

Let  her  alone ! 

It  was  only  a  woman's  tears; 

Meet  them  with  sneers  and  frown ; 
It  is  nothing  to  you  if  she  stand  or  fall ; 

Let  her  go  down ! 
It  is  nothing  to  you  if  it  be  a  lie 

That  tarnished  her  spotless  fame, — 
Nothing  to  you  if  she  droop  or  die 

'Neath  the  weight  of  the  cruel  shame. 
'Twas  only  a  woman ;  'tis  nothing  to  you ; 
Besides  she  is  friendless — it  would  not  do ; 

Let  her  go  down ! 

— Garnet. 

O  World !     Be  merciful  I     Hers  is  the  cost, 

Not  thine,  that  she  has  lost,  forever  lost, 

All  that  a  woman  loves !     Let  it  suffice 

Thy  harshest  sentence,  that  her  soul  such  price 

Of  agony  is  paying,  hour  by  hour. 

As  ye  can  never  dream!    Oh!  for  the  power 

To  tell  ye  how  the  SAveet  and  tender  eyes 

Of  little  children  stab  her!     How  the  cries 

Of  downy  spring-time  robins,  in  their  nest; 

And  cooing  of  white  doves,  by  doves  caressed ; 

And  ruddy  firelights,  streaming  out  at  night 

From  sacred  homes,  where  life  is  pure  and  bright ; 

And  joyous  voices,  falling  through  the  air, 

Of  happy  women — all  to  her  despair, 

Are  maddening,  mocking  things,  and  in  her  soul 

The  iron  deeper  plunge ;  till  o'er  her  roll 

Such  surging,  tideless  seas  of  bitterness, 


THE  CHRIST  OF  SYMPATHY.  239 

Of  loss,  which  nothing  can  retrieve  or  bless, 
That  death  by  any  fate,  and  any  shape 
Of  woe  beyond,  seem  but  a  glad  escape ! 
And  world,  hard  world,  men— and  ye  women  too— 
Bethink  ye  how  to-day  it  fared  with  you. 
If  in  your  midst  that  voice  were  lifted  up. 
Which  once,  of  old,  when  this  same  cruel  cup 
Of  scorn  and  shame  on  a  defenceless  head 
Was  poured,  rang  through  all  Galilee,  and  said: 
"Let  him,  who  is  among  you  without  one 
Such  sin  as  hers  has  been,  cast  the  first  stone!" 
O  men  and  women !   not  one  whit  than  they 
Do  ye  stand  purer!     "One  by  one,"  away, 
"Of  your  own  thoughts  convicted,"  ye  would  steal; 
While  nearer  Jesus,  Magdalen  would  kneel 
Shedding  repentant  tears  on  His  pure  garment's  hem. 
To  hear  "Go.  sin  no  more!     Neither  do  I  condemn !" 
— Helen  Hunt  Jackson. 


We  are  living  in  the  midst  of  an  amount  of  corruption  second 
only  to  that  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  It  seems  as  though  soci- 
ety must  dissolve,  as  though  it  must  be  unable  to  cohere  much 
longer.  And  the  most  alarming  thing  is  not  the  condition  of  our 
pulpits;  it  is  the  most  absolute  torpor  of  the  public  conscience.  We 
are  in  cities  that  are  full  of  churches,  in  ^vhich  the  most  mon- 
strous  ebullitions  of  wickedness  seem  not  much  to  disturb  the 
tranquility  of  the  house  of  God.  The  Christianity  of  New  York 
is  no  match  for  the  depravity  in  that  city.  And  what  is  true  of 
that  city  is  not  untrue  of  many  others.  .  .  .  To-day,  money 
is  our  danger,  and  the  corruption  that  follows  money. 

Beware  of  taking  the  power  that  wealth  gives  you,  to  build  a 
house  with  walls  so  thick,  that  you  cannot  hear  the  sighs  of  men 
in  the  streets.  Beware,  that  you  do  not  build  your  banqueting 
hall  so  high  that  you  cannot  see  the  beggar  full  of  sores  that  lies  at 
your  door. 

Beware  of  refined  selfishness.  Beware  of  esthetic  selfishness. 
Beware  of  aristocratic  selfishness.  Beware  of  the  selfishness  of 
prosperity  and  of  respectability. — H.  W.  Beccher. 

God  will  yet  take  account  of  the  selfishness  of  wealth,  and  His 
quarrel  has  yet  to  be  fought  out.  — Kingsley, 


(240) 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE  ANTI-CHRIST  IN  SELF. 

Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself. — MattJi.  xxit.'jg. 

Consider,  each  one,  not  only  his  own  things,  but  also  the  things 
of  others. — Phil,  ii:  4. 

Let  no  man  seek  only  his  own  things,  but  also  the  things  of 
others. — /.  Cor.  x  :  24. 

But  know  this,  that  in  the  last  days,  perilous  times  shall  come. 
For  men  shall  be  lovers  of  self,  lovers  of  money,  etc. — //  Tim- 
othy Hi:  r,  2. 

"For  all  seek  their  own,  not  the  things  of  Jesus — 
the  Christ,"  is  as  true  now  of  the  masses  of  men,  as 
it  was  in  Paul's  time.  According  to  the  prevision 
given  him,  self-loving  and  money  loving  will  head 
the  long  catalogue  of  sins  and  vices,  which  will  be 
characteristic  of  "the  last  days."  There  has  been,  in- 
deed, a  mighty  progress  in  the  civilization  of  certain 
portions  of  the  human  family, — in  their  exterior 
Christianization — to  some  extent,  in  their  interior, 
but  selfishness  has  not  ceased  to  be  dominant.  Though, 
it  may  be  less  coarse  and  turbulent, — more  subtle  and 
refined,  it  is  rapacious  as  ever. 

In  great  cities,  where  all  the  faculties  of  the  mind 
are  put  to  the  greatest  tension,  it  is  'developed  in  its 
intensity.  Multitudes  in  them  drive  their  vocations, 
as  if  there  was  no  God,  no  future  accountability  and 

16  (241) 


242  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

retribution;  no  regard  for  the  interests  of  their  neigh- 
bors, when  conflicting  with  theirs,  and  standing  in  the 
way  of  their  rapacity.  Thus,  they  move  on,  pell- 
mell  to  the  end.     After  that :     What  ? 

Scenes  in  New  York  city  some  years  since,  when 
gambling  in  gold  was  rampant,  illustrate  the  aband- 
onment to  which  souls  are  left,  when  seized  with  the 
accursed  thirst  for  gold.  Here  are  a  few  sentences 
from  the  attempts  of  a  reporting  witness  to  depict 
them :  "You  hear  what  seems  to  be  the  screeches  of 
the  damned;  it  is  only  the  operators  in  the  Gold 
Koom.  Men  are  fighting  to  get  in,  begging  to  get  in; 
men  are  fighting  their  way  out.  You  can  hear  noth- 
ing but  one  shrill,  poignant,  horrible  clamor  of  threats. 
Five  hundred  men  are  wild  with  frenzy,  that  in  the 
cooler  atmosphere  of  life  is  never  awakened;  their 
eyes  gleam  strangely,  their  nei^ves  stand  out  on  their 
temples  and  necks,  their  cheeks  palf)itate,  there  is  a 
foaming  saliva  gathered  at  the  corners  of  their  mouths. 
They  scream  and  gesticulate  and  thrust  each  other  out 
of  the  way,  and  gather  round  the  iron  railing  in  the 
centre  of  the  room,  where  a  puny  little  fountain  sings 
its  frightened  but  unheard  song  of  purity,  and  there 
they  bay  each  other  until  they  are  purple  in  the  face, 
and  shake  their  memoranda  like  signals  of  distress."  ^ 

Some  of  the  principals  in  the  gigantic  swindle  in 
"  Erie  Stock  "  during  Nov.,  1868,  and  which  caused  so 
much  financial  distress  through  the  nation,  were  said 
to  have  been  among  the  "  foremost  in  the  works  of 
charity"  in  New  York  city, — "the  education  of  the 
young,"  "foreign  missions,"  "negro  suffrage,"  etc. 
I.    Cor.  Chicago  Tribune. 


GIGANTIC  SELFISHNESS.  243 

With  reference  to  tliese  facts,  H.  W.  Beeclier  was  re- 
ported as  saying:  "New  York  city  had  nearly  as  many 
churches  as  dens  of  infamy;  yet  the  pulpits  of  that 
city  allowed  all  kinds  of  corruption  to  grow  within  its 
borders,  until  it  is  second  only  to  Sodom  and  Gomor- 
rah. Business  men,  who  stand  high  in  the  church, 
set  examples  before  their  clerks,  that  ought  to  make 
every  honest  man  abhor  them  from  the  bottom  of  his 
heart.  Ministers  are  supposed  to  be  the  mouthpieces 
of  God;  yet  they  grow  fat  in  the  service  of  the  Devil 
by  keeping  silent,  when  they  should  lift  up  their  voices 
and  express  the  wickedness  of  corrupt  men  in  high 
places."  * 

To  all  such  criminals,  and  to  such  as  bear  Christian 
names,  the  following  epigrammatic  lines  on  the  mam- 
moth "stock  jobber"  Law,  placarded  on  the  walls  of 
Paris  a  century  and  a  half  since,  are  as  appropriate, 
as  to  him : 

"Beelzebub  begat  Law;  Law  begat  the  Mississippi; 
the  Mississippi  begat  the  scheme;  the  scheme  begat 

I.  Some  very  acute  and  long-headed  pirates  of  society  are  kind 
family  men,  love  to  gather  children  around  their  knees,  have  sjm- 
pathetic  impulses ;  and  when  they  are  not  on  a  plundering  excur- 
sion among  widows  and  orphans,  as  directors  of  mills,  railroads, 
and  trust  companies,  would  be  selected  to  found  a  society  of  cor- 
rect men  in  consequence  of  immaculate  dicky  and  domesticity. — 
John  Weiss. — Religion  ayid  Science. 

I  suppose  it  may  be  quite  safely  asserted,  that  half  of  the  stock 
manipulators  and  gold  gamblers  in  New  York  are  regular  attend- 
ants at  church,  and  would  make  a  perfectly  orthodox  confession 
of  faith.  Some  of  them  are  noted  for  their  zealous  piety,  for  their 
efficiency  in  prayer  meetings,  and  for  their  generosity,  too,  in 
handing  over  to  Jesus  what  they  have  cheated  out  of  their  own 
confederates  in  financial  wickedness. —  Wm.  J.  Potter, 


244  THE  CnillST  IN  LIFE. 

the  paper;  the  paper  begat  the  bank;  the  bank  be- 
gat the  note;  the  note  begat  the  share;  the  share  be- 
gat the  stock-jobbing;  the  stock-jobbing  begat  the 
registration;  the  registration  begat  the  account;  the 
account  begat  the  general  balance ;  the  general  bal- 
ance begat  zero ;  from  which  all  power  of  begetting 
was  taken  away." 

When  brought  to  the  last  analysis,  the  lives  of  but 
few  can  stand  the  test:  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself. 
What  was  said  of  Hebrew  society,  it  is  feared,  might 
be  said  of  large  numbers,  if  not  the  largest,  in  the  cit- 
ies of  Christendom.  From  the  least  of  them  to  the 
greatest  of  them,  every  one  is  given  to  covetousness. 
Jer.  vi:13,  viii:10.  Take  ye  heed,  every  one,  of  his 
neighbor,  and  trust  ye  not  in  any  brother;  for  every 
brother  will  utterly  supplant.  Jer.  ix:4  The  mass 
of  professing  Christians  strive  to  impress  themselves 
and  others,  that  they,  indeed,  exemplify,  illustrate 
and  adorn  the  Christian  requirement.  It  is  hoped, 
many  of  them  measurably  do.  There  is  sedulousness 
in  the  observance  of  externals,  of  church  going,  in 
the  devotion  of  a  very  small  per-centum  of  gain  to  be- 
nevolent enterprises.  There  are  in  every  commun- 
ity, worthy  ones,  struggling  to  rise  from  inherited 
poverty,  or  Providential  misfortunes.  It  is  rare,  that 
they  are  able  to  secure  pecuniary  help  from  prospered 
ones,  friends  or  brethren,  except  on  the  best  security, 
and  then,  on  high  interest — compounded  if  not  paid 
when  due.  What  did  Jesus  say?  If  ye  lend  to  them, 
of  whom  ye  hope  to  receive,  what  merit  can  you 
claim?  even  sinners  lend  to  sinners  to  receive  again 
as  much.    Lend^  expecting  iio  return.  Luke,  vi :  34, 35. 


VALUE  OP  USE  OF  MONEY  VARIABLE.      245 

Thou  shalt  not  lend  on  usury  to  thy  brother.  Deut. 
xxiii:  19.  Usury, — percentage  for  the  use  of  money  or 
its  equivalent,  is  not  fixed,  but  variable.  It  is  to  be 
determined  by  the  relative  circumstances  of  the  needy 
borrower  and  of  the  opulent  lender, — their  social  or 
Christian  relations.  What  would  be  excessive  inter- 
est on  one  occasion,  might  not  be  on  another.  Any 
interest  exacted  at  all,  might  in  some  cases  be  ^  re- 
garded inconsiderate,  whilst  that  which  is  above  the 
legal  might  be  a  generous  reduction  from  the  valid 
rate.  The  value  of  the  use  of  money,  like  that  of 
every  commodity,  depends  on  the  state  of  the  market 
— on  scarcity  or  abundance,  demand  as  well  as  supply, 
security  or  risk.  Thus  Mammon  tests  and  grades. 
The  Christ  tested  money  value  otherwise.  "  Whoso," 
said  an  apostle,  "hath  the  world's  goods  and  seeth 
his  brother  in  need,  and  shutteth  up  his  compassion 
from  him,  how  doth  the  love  of  God  abide  in  him?" 
I  John  iii:  17.  True:  help  must  be  discriminate.  The 
improvident  and  inf  rugal,  the  prodigal  and  profligate 
are  sometimes  injured  by  indiscriminate  aid.  Suffer- 
ing is  intended  to  discipline,  refine  and  purify.  Noth- 
ing else,  often,  will  reveal  one's  folly  to  one's  self. 
Improvidence,  indolence,  shiftlessness,  nor  wasteful- 
ness are  to  be  countenanced  or  fostered. 

The  truth  must  be  told,  and  it  is  never  slander. 
Many,  if  not  the  mass  of  Christian  believers  live,  as 
if  self,  the  world  were  to  be  sought  first,  God  and  the 
weal  of  others  last.  "Many,"  indeed  many  "will 
say  unto  me,  in  that  day.  Lord,  Lord."  The  Lord 
will  not  know  them;  not  because  they  had  not  been 
members  in  good  standing  of  some  visible  church  on 


24G  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

earth ;  not  because  they  were  not  regular  in  attend- 
ance on  religious  meetings,  and  in  the  performance 
of  church  duties;  not  because  they  did  not  pray  with 
power  and  exhort  with  unction  in  the  conference  with 
their  brethren,  or  in  their  individual  families;  not  be- 
cause they  were  not  good  citizens  in  the  world's  re- 
pute; not  because  their  exterior  morality  could  not 
bear  inspection;  but  because:  "inasmuch  as  ye  did  it 
not  to  one  of  these  least,  ye  did  it  not  to  Me."  Matth. 
XXV :  45. 

The  prime  test  of  righteous  character  in  commer- 
cial circles  is  integrity  in  word  and  deed.  Men  in 
them  know,  test,  value  each  other  mainly  through  out- 
ward conduct,  not  by  their  creeds  or  professions.  Je- 
sus approved  such  test.  It  is  as  rigidly  applied  by 
discerning  members  of  the  same  church  in  their  se- 
cular transactions  with  their  brethren,  as  by  world- 
lings with  each  other.  The  crucible  is  fiery,  and  the 
alembic  no  respecter  of  persons.  No  distinction  of 
saints  and  sinners  on  "  Change."  More  likely,  a  smooth, 
sanctimonious,  sly  devil  will  be  looked  for  under  the 
cowl  of  religious  pretension,  than  a  meek,  transparent, 
true  saint.'  "When  one  comes  down  from  the  holy 
heights  of  Zion  to  touch  or  to  handle  material  things, 

I.  Kindness  and  sincerity  which  are  malice  and  design.  A 
devilish  humor  under  a  demure  look. — Dr.  South. 

A  clean  face  and  garment,  with  a  foul  soul.  An  angel  abroad, 
a  devil  at  home,  and  worse  when  an  angel  than  when  a  devil. — 
Bishop  Hall. 

He's  a  leech  in  his  dispositions,  he's  a  screw  and  a  wice  in  his 
actions,  a  snake  in  his  twistings,  and  a  lobster  in  his  claws. — 
Bleak  House. 


INTEGRITY  THE  TEST  OF  RIGHTEOUS  CHARACTER.    247 

— money,  stocks,  merchandise ;  if  he  is  avaricious, 
grasping,  rapacious,  an  intriguer,  treacherous,  unre- 
liable, not  punctual,  a  disregarder  of  promises,  of  pe- 
cuniary obligations;  a  previous  reputation  for  saintli- 
ness  as  a  minister,  deacon,  elder,  secretary  of  a  Mis- 
sionary society,  editor,  or  pillar  in  some  church,  will 
not  serve  long  to  conceal  his  true  character  from  ap- 
prehension, or  cover  him  from  the  reprobation  of  his 
fellow  men,  when  the  mask  is  torn  off.  If  the  fire  of 
men's  judgments  in  this  world  is  not  endurable,  how 
can  the  "consuming  fire"  of  God's  scrutiny  be  with- 
stood, "  in  the  day  when  He  shall  judge  the  secrets  of 
men  by  Jesus  Christ?" 

The  voice  of  the  people  —  the  common  judg- 
ments of  men  upon  each  other  are  generally  cor- 
rect, though  sometimes  grossly  unjust.  Sometimes, 
centuries  elapse  ere  those  unjust  verdicts  are  re- 
versed. These  human  judgments  might  be  re- 
garded in  a  sense  as  the  voice  of  God,  were  the  knowl- 
edge of  each  other — inclusive  of  motives  and  circum- 
stances, perfect.  They  are  often  more  correct  ex- 
pressions of  the  voice  of  God  respecting  individuals, 
than  those  of  ecclesiastical  societies,  with  which  they 
may  be  connected.  Those  of  the  latter  are  often 
based  on  restricted  evidence, — mere  profession,  ex- 
ternal observance,  manifestation  of  emotions,  dis- 
play of  gifts,  and  they  are  the  conclusions  of  those 
within  their  ranks, — not  modified  by  the  report  of 
them  who  are  without.  The  lenses  of  observation  are 
sectarian,  and  are  therefore,  party-colored.  The  ob- 
servation is  mainly  restricted  to  one  day.  That  of 
outsiders  ranges  through  six  days  out  of  seven,  at 


248  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

such  times  and  under  such  circumstances,  when  they 
are  not  conscious  of  being  observed,  and  when  real 
principles  of  conduct  and  the  prevailing  state  of  the 
heart  will  be  unmistakably  revealed.  The  judgment 
of  a  community  upon  the  character  of  a  man  is  the 
combined  result  of  close  observation  and  scrutiny  for 
many  years,  from  many  points  of  observation ;  myr- 
iads of  scrutinizing  eyes  have  been  upon  him  all  this 
while,  so  that  every  single  observation  may  be  said 
to  be  the  complement  of  all  others,  making  the  final 
verdict  of  the  whole  complete.  Professions  influence, 
only  as  they  are  in  harmony  wdth  one's  life;  when  in- 
harmonious, they  but  make  the  hypocrisy  or  the  self- 
deception  more  glaring.  This  final  verdict,  this  ulti- 
mate adjudication  upon  the  character  of  a  man,  is  in- 
deed a  judgment  day  to  him  in  this  world;  is,  to  a 
great  extent,  the  anticipated  voice  of  God, — to  be  re- 
affirmed, doubtless,  in  many,  if  not  in  most  instances, 
at  the  last  by  the  Omniscient  Himself.  True:  many 
popular  judgments  of  a  time  will  be  reversed.  Some 
will  rise  from  dark  eclipse  to  shine  aloft  like  stars. 
The  glitter  and  the  glare  of  others  will  sink  into  the 
blackness  of  darkness.  Merciful  it  has  been,  that 
such  a  voice  of  history  has  carried  with  it  much  of 
the  potency  of  God's  voice;  if  it  indeed  was  not,  in 
verity,  that  awful  utterance  speaking  through  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  men.  If  it  had  not  been  for 
these  impressive  verdicts  from  age  to  age,  how  would 
the  theological  errors,  the  false  teachings,  and  the 
still  more  fallible  practices  of  ecclesiastics  and  eccles- 
iastical bodies  have  been  corrected?  Was  there  ever 
a  crime  practiced  by  men,  that  did  not,  at  some  time. 


THE  VOICE  OF  THE  PEOPLE  THE  VOICE  OF  GOD.   249 

find  a  refuge  in  some  professed  sanctuaries  of  the  liv- 
ing God?  Have  not  intemperance,  slavery,  concu- 
binage, simony,  other  great  crimes  been  at  times  thus 
sheltered,  if  not  tolerated  and  defended?  Has  not 
this  "voice  of  God"  from  without  been  potent  to  rev- 
olutionize and  to  purify  within  ?  Would  this  inward 
purification  have  ensued  otherwise?  It  is  feared  not.  ^ 
To  such  reduction  must  all  men  sooner  or  later 
come,  even  in  this  world.  Some  may  from  worldly 
policy,  fear,  or  sectarian  zeal,  attempt  to  shield  from 
adequate  condemnation,  ungodliness  in  a  brother 
church  member, — so  "wrap  it  up,"  be  silent  in  com- 
ment or  reference ;  nevertheless,  they,  even,  will  assent 
in  heart  to  the  justness  of  the  verdict  and  the  con- 
demnation; be  as  hesitant  and  reluctant  to  entrust  to 
such  one  their  goods  and  chattels,  their  real  and  per- 

I.  The  voice  of  the  people^  the  voice  of  God. — The  proverb  rests 
on  the  assumption  that  the  foundations  of  man's  being  are  laid  in 
the  truth;  and  thus,  that  there  is  no  conviction  which  is  really  a 
conviction  of  the  universal  humanity,  but  rests  on  a  true  ground ; 
no  faith  which  is  indeed  the  faith  of  mankind,  but  has  a  reality 
corresponding  to  it.  For,  as  Jeremy  Taylor  has  said,  *'  it  is  not  a 
vain  noise  when  many  nations  join  their  voices  in  the  attestation 
or  detestation  of  an  action." 

This  man  or  that,  this  generation  or  the  other  might  be  de- 
ceived, but  all  men  and  all  generations  could  not. — Trench. 

Public  opinion  has  ubiquity,  and  a  species  of  omniscience;  and 
there  is  no  power  on  earth  so  stern  in  its  character,  so  steady  in 
its  movements,  so  irresistible  in  its  sway. — Protestant  Jesuitism. 

All  national  character  is  gradually  produced  by  the  daily  ac- 
tion of  circumstances,  of  which  each  day's  results  seem  so  insig- 
nificant as  not  to  be  worth  mentioning;  one  would  see  that  what  is 
trifling,  when  viewed  in  its  increments,  may  be  formidable  when 
viewed  in  its  sum  total. — Herbert  Spencer. 


250  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

sonal,  as  are  publicans  and  sinners.  What,  what  is 
there  left  of  worth  in  a  man,  when  his  honor  is  gone? 
when  his  words  and  deeds,  proving  unreliable,  are  de- 
structible, therefore  are  consumed? 

When  faith  is  lost,  when  honor  dies, 
The  man  is  dead !  i 

And  who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?  He  alone, 
who  is  in  Christ.  If  any  man  build  upon  the  foun- 
dation, gold,  silver,  precious  stones,  wood,  hay,  stub- 
ble; each  man's  work  shall  become  manifest,  .  .  . 
because  it  shall  be  revealed  through  fire ;  and  the  fire 
shall  prove  the  work  of  each  man,  of  what  sort  it  is. 
ICor.  iii:12,  13. 

"  For  none  of  us  liveth  to  himself,  and  none  dieth 
to  himself."  Child  of  the  Divine  Father  by  creation, 
having  been  reconciled  to  Him,  he  is  not  his  own. 
Therefore,  not  solely  from  constraint  will  he  give 
heed  to  requirements  of  discipleship ;  his  service  for 
the  weal  of  others  will  be  willing,  and  thus  will  it  ef- 
fectually honor  and  serve  the  Being  Who  made  and 
has  rescued  him  from  perdition.  Christianity  is  de- 
signed to  eradicate,  or  to  properly  repress  selfishness 
in  each  heart.  How  many  such  reconciled  ones  could 
bear  the  test  should  they  be  summoned  for  the  in- 
quisition? How  many  of  you,  isolated  individuals, 
not  involved  in  duties  and  responsibilities  as  heads  of 
families,  are  living  primarily  for  Christian  service  to 
others?  Do  you,  professedly  commissioned  to  speak 
life-words,  as  though  God  Himself  were  beseeching 
men  through  you  to  be  reconciled  to  Him, — do  you  oc- 
cupy your  position  mainly  for  service,  to  others,  or 

I.     Whittier. 


CHEISTIAN8  MUST  EFFLOEESCU  IN  GOOD  DOING.      251 

chiefly  for  its  emoluments,  its  dignities,  its  special 
privileges,  its  means  of  discipline  and  culture?  Let 
the  Omniscient,  your  own  conscience  witness  and  re- 
spond. The  quest  cannot  be  put  by.  The  fire  will 
try  every  one's  work  of  what  sort  it  is. 

It  is  reaffirmed,  and  it  cannot  too  often  be  urged 
upon  the  attention  of  Christendom,  that  no  religious 
system,  no  section  of  Christian  faith,  no  form  of  pre- 
senting it,  no  Christian  sect  can  permanently  influ- 
ence humanity  which  do  not  effloresce  in  good  doing. 
The  land  may  be  studded  with  houses  for  worship, 
gorgeous  temples  may  be  erected  in  the  large  cities, 
able  and  brilliant  expositors  of  their  creeds  may  be 
installed  in  them;  they  will  not  signify  more  to  the 
multitudes  than  so  many  heathen  pagodas.  The  cre- 
denda  taught  and  enforced  may  be  clearly  cut,  sharply 
defined,  transparent  and  symmetrical  as  a  prism; — it 
may  be  a  perfect  and  resplendent  Calvinistic  penta- 
hedron; it  will  have  no  more  spiritual  power  than  a 
proposition  in  Euclid;  perhaps  not  so  much,  since 
that  can  be  mathematically  demonstrated  and  out- 
lined,— be  materially  applied.  O  church  member!  O 
Sabbath  goer  and  prayer  meeting  devotee!  realize, 
that  without  the  fruits  of  good  doing,  thy  sectarian 
creed,  thy  Christian  profession,  thy  fidelity  and  as- 
siduity in  the  performance  of  external  duties,  thy 
scrupulosity  in  the  observance  of  commands  external, 
thy  public  prayers,  exhortations  and  songs  of  praise, 
thy  sanctimonious  tones,  casts,  attitudes,  postures  and 
expressions  will  be  regarded  sham  and  cant,  if  not 
hypocrisy,  by  the  sharp-sighted  of  the  world.  Thy 
religious  pretensions  will  be  hooted  at, — privately  it 


252  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

may  bo,  from  prudential  considerations,  more  scorn- 
fully than  if  thou  wert  a  poor  Chinese  or  Japanese 
burning  incense  to  his  Joss,  for  "consistency  is  a 
jewel." 

"Except  a  man  be  bom  again,  he  cannot  see  the 
kingdom  of  God."  The  best  evidence  of  the  trans- 
formation of  a  soul  is  the  change  wrought  in  the  daily 
life.  It  is  not  so  apparent  in  the  young,  whose  nat- 
ural selfishness  has  not  become  intensified  by  in- 
dulgence and  habit,  during  months  and  years.  The 
process  of  sanctification  commences  with  an  effort  to 
restrain  and  purify  one's  natural  selfishness.  If  that 
element  in  original  constitution  be  prominent;  if  pre- 
vious occupation  for  scores  of  years  has  specially 
tended  to  educe  and  to  sharpen  it;  and  if  the  spiritual 
revolution  has  been  delayed  till  the  meridian  of  life 
has  come,  what  a  struggle  is  before  him^  Such  one  is 
to  be  pitied  and  prayed  for,  charitably  and  patiently 
borne  by  those  who  can  thank  God  that  they  are  not 
such  as  he,  and  by  all  others,  if  they  will. — In  the  in- 
quest and  adjudication  upon  a  man, — a  Christian  man, 
his  original  constitution,  his  previous  life  and  pres- 
ent circumstances  are  to  be  considered. 

Constitutional  selfishness  in  the  Astors,  the  Vander- 
bilts,  the  Goulds,  was  not,  is  not,  probably,  more  dis- 
proportioned  to  other  elements  in  their  nature,  than 
it  is  in  ordinary  men.  Their  talent  for  acquisi- 
tion was  great.  Their  extraordinary  success 
in  the  accumulation  of  money  was  generally  the 
result  of  extraordinary  foresight,  and  the  closest  at- 
tention to  the  conditions  of  material  aggregation, — 
the  exercise  of  intellectual  qualities;  above  all,  to  fa- 


BUSINESS  AND  AGEICULTURAL  LIFE.  253 

voring  providences,  allotted  them,  doubtless,  for  wise 
purposes  by  their  Maker,  without  which  they  could 
not  have  thus  succeeded.  Once  in  the  full  tide  of  accu- 
mulation, and,  in  the  exercise  of  such  qualities,  and  by 
the  continuation  of  such  favoring  providences,  they 
were  without  difficulty  borne  onward  to  great  for- 
tunes. Such  minds  with  such  constantly  enlarging 
experiences,  with  acquiring  habits  intensified,  can- 
not remain  inactive.  They  must  move  forward.  The 
simple  care  of  what  they  have  acquired  inevitably 
adds  more.  It  is  not  long  before  their  entire  thought 
and  time  are  absorbed  in  this  care. 

Now:  let  the  business  lives  of  such  men  be  pro- 
tracted to  the  age  of  Methuselah,  or  even  one  or  more 
centuries,  ever  gathering  and  heaping  up,  without 
distribution  in  good  use,  what  a  terror, — what  a  curse 
would  they  become  to  the  rest  of  the  human  family! 

Most  persons, — of  those  even  who  bear  the  Christ- 
ian name,  engage  in  professional  or  business  life,  pri- 
marily and  chiefly  for  their  own  personal  advantage 
without  regard  for  the  weal  of  others.  Many  there 
are,  doubtless,  that  give  themselves  to  it  religiously, 
because  they  believe  it  is  their  mission.  They  would 
not,  in  the  slightest,  deflect  from  rectitude  and  from 
regard  for  their  neighbor's  interest  as  for  their  own. 
But,  in  cities  especially,  if  not  elsewhere,  success, 
according  to  worldly  interpretation,  is  conditioned 
on  successful  competition  with  others.  In  this  re- 
spect, believers  are  on  a  common  level  with  unbe- 
lievers. There  is  the  goal,  and  here  is  the  dusty  race 
course  packed  with  ambitious  aspirants — all  self-seek- 
ing, so  far  as  can  be  discerned. 


254  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

Agricultural  life  does  not  seem  to  be  encompassed 
with  difficulties,  trammeled  with  conditions  to  such 
extent.  Success  in  the  tillage  of  the  soil  seems  de- 
pendent on  Providence,  on  material  conditions  more 
than  on  human  forecast,  skill  and  industry.  True 
enough :  it  is  in  this,  as  in  all  other  professions,  God 
helps  those  only  who  help  themselves,  and  no  harvest 
will  come  without  seed  sowing  and  culture,  most  as- 
siduous attention,  careful  observance  of  times  and  sea- 
sons. But  these  human  elements  are  all  profitless 
without  the  divine  ones  of  sunshine,  the  early  and 
the  latter  rain,  and  they  are  not  proof  against  ex- 
tremes of  heat  and  cold,  of  protracted  rain  and 
drought,  against  storms  and  hurricanes, — the  rust,  the 
chinch  bug  and  the  army  worm.  True  also  it  is:  the 
sway  of  human  hearts,  and  contingencies  in  business 
are  as  subject  to  supreme  sway  of  Providence  as  sun- 
shine, storms,  rain,  flames,  mildew  and  the  weevil. 
The  homily  is  to  the  mechanic,  the  artisan,  the  mer- 
chant— men  of  all  professions,  as  to  the  agriculturist: 
He  becometh  poor  that  dealeth  with  a  slack  hand; 
but  the  hand  of  the  diligent  maketh  rich.  Prov.  x:  4 
The  hand  of  the  diligent  shall  bear  rule,  but  the  sloth- 
ful shall  be  under  tribute.  Prov.  xii :  24  The  soul 
of  the  sluggard  desireth  and  hath  nothing;  but  the 
soul  of  the  diligent  shall  be  mar^e  fat.     Prov.  xiii:  4 

The  inquiry  of  the  thoughtful  and  conscientious, 
who  desire  and  profess  to  follow  their  Master  in  bus- 
iness, must  press  itself.  How  can  I  compete  with  my 
neighbor  and  love  him  as  myself?  This  is  indeed  a 
very  serious  and  practical  question  for  disciples  every 
day.      The   Master  requires  it,  and  authorizes  the 


PRINCIPLES  IN  CONDUCTING  BUSINESS.  255 

world  to  expect  it  from  them.  The  determination 
turns  on  the  motive,  the  end,  and  the  means  em- 
ployed. 

The  motive  dominant,  this  stamps  the  work 
With  its  own  likeness. 

Very  many,  if  not  most  think  they  cannot  succeed,  un- 
less competitor  is  borne  down,  crippled  or  left  behind 
to  fall  in  the  race  at  last.  Hence,  at  a  certain  stage,  some, 
not  being  content  to  wield  their  resources  exclusively 
for  their  own  success,  commence  efforts  to  destroy 
their  competitors.  They  undertake  to  Justify  their 
course  on  the  assumption  that  their  self-preservation 
demands  it.^  It  is  not  believed,  that  such  an  alterna- 
tive is  forced  by  Providence  on  men.  The  most  that 
is  allowable  in  a  Christian,  it  is  believed,  is  to  act  on 
the  defensive,  to  protect  himself  from  injury.  If  in 
doing  strictly  and  only  that,  the  assailing  competitor 
is  injured,  the  responsibility  therefore  devolves  upon 
him  alone.  It  is  not  believed,  the  Savior  demands  that 
his  disciples  be  passive  and  unresisting,  while  assail- 
ants undertake  to  destroy  their  lives,  their  material 
interests  or  their  reputation.  "Eesist  not  evil,  etc./' 
of  Matth.  v:39,  reialiate  not  upon  the  evil  doer,  re- 
venge not  thyself  on  him  who  would  do  thee  wrong  or 
has  done  it,  comes  in  to  modify,  if  not  entirely  to  restrain 
and  suppress.  Jesus,  in  order  that  His  declarations  on 
this  topic  might  be  distinctly  understood,  ran  a  par- 
allel between  them  and  "the  traditions  of  the  elders," 
showing  that  in  many  instances,  they  were  totally  dis- 

I.  The  selfish  people,  selfishness  is  simply  self-defence;  to  re- 
nounce it,  is  to  evacuate  one's  intrenched  position;  to  surrender, 
at  discretion  to  the  enemy. — Ecce  Homo. 


256  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

similar.  He  had,  in  the  verse  immediately  preceding 
the  39th,  quoted  the  legem  ialionisoi  "old  time,"  "an 
eye  for  an  eye, — a  tooth  for  a  tooth."  He  taught  that 
those  who  would  follow  Him,  should  not  undertake 
to  redress  injuries  in  person,  reputation,  business,  es- 
tate, under  the  control  of  a  retaliatory  spirit.  What- 
ever is  done  in  that  direction  must  be  from  a  higher 
and  holier  motive.  Indeed,  some  injuries  the  wronged 
must  not  undertake  to  redress  at  all.  For  some  wrongs 
there  is  often  no  repair  in  the  present  life.  They 
must  be  left  to  the  vindication  of  God,  and  in  the  life 
eonian.  Vengeance  is  His.  But  it  is  evident,  from 
the  constitution  of  things,  as  well  as  from  many  spe- 
cific teachings,  and  the  general  drift  of  the  Bible,  that 
all  evil  and  all  evil-doers  are  to  be  resisted  to  the  ut- 
termost from  the  highest  considerations.  The  resist- 
ance is  due  to  society,  to  the  wrong-doer  himself  to 
keep  him  from  adding  sin  to  sin.  The  injunctions  are, 
— "Eesist  the  Devil."  "Take  unto  thyself  the  whole 
armor  of  God,"  that  the  enjoined  one  may  be  able  to 
resist  successfully.  It  surely  cannot  be  unchristian 
to  contend  for  truth,  right,  justice,  as  earnestly  as  do 
the  Adversary  and  all  his  emissaries  against  them. 

It  is  possible,  then,  for  a  Christian  to  be  occupied 
in  the  same  business  with  another,  and  to  love  him  as 
himself.  It  is  indeed  a  difficult  requirement.  But  it 
is  believed,  it  is  possible,  otherwise  his  Father  would 
not  place  him  in  such  circumstances,  and  make  such 
exaction  from  him.  The  word  "occupy"  is  not  nec- 
essarily inclusive  of  competition, — creature  of  a  selfish 
and  self-seeking  motive  impelling  and  controlling, — 
excluding  regard  for  another  as  for  one's  self.  It  can- 


COMPETITION  NOT  THE  END  OF  BUSINESS.  257 

not  be  believed,  that  a  Christian  has  a  right  to  engage 
in  business,  for  the  sake  of  surpassing  or  crush- 
ing a  rival .  He,  then,  cannot  love  him  as  himself. 
His  must  be  a  higher  and  holier  end.  It  must  be  to 
do  his  individual  work,  for  which  he  is  fitted  and  com- 
missioned, to  glorify  his  Maker,  and  thus  do  good  to 
his  fellows. 

Must,  then.  Christians  refrain  from  engaging  in  bus- 
iness, to  which  they  think  they  are  called  by  their 
original  constitution,  their  predilections,  their  prov- 
idential training  and  circumstances,  because  in  the 
act  of  so  doing,  they  really  or  apparently  come  into 
competition  or  conflict  with  the  interests  of  others? 
Certainly  not.  It  is  evident,  that  competition  must 
not  be  the  original  motive  and  end  of  such  action,  but 
for  the  higher  and  nobler  ones  stated.  It  is  evident, 
likewise,  that  for  such  rightful  purposes,  they  must 
guard  against  the  control  or  inter-mixture  of  com- 
petitory  motive  for  the  mere  sake  of  surpassing,— of 
pecuniary  enrichment  by  the  impoverishment  of  an- 
other,— of  building  up  a  business  on  the  ruin  of  a  ri- 
val or  competitor.  Surely,  if  one  says  or  does  anything 
to  hinder  or  embarass  his  mechanical,  professional  or 
trade  neighbor,  he  certainly  does  not  love  him  as  him- 
self. Indeed,  more :  If  he  does  not  desire  the  suc- 
cess of  that  neighbor  as  much  as  his  own,  he  cannot, 
so  far,  be  Christ's  consistent  disciple. 

It  becomes,  then,  an  inquiry  of  the  gravest  charac- 
ter every  day,  not  only  as  to  acts,  but  as  to  motives, 
ends  and  speech :  how  a  Christian  can  conduct  bus- 
iness successfully, — which   in    the  world's  parlance 

17 


258  THE   CHllIST   IN   LIFE. 

means  the  acquisition  of  money,  and  surpass  com- 
petitors, without  trenching  ui^on  their  rights  and  in- 
terests? Here  is  the  labor;  here  is  the  task.  If  thou 
dost  sincerely  desire  to  test  the  character  of  thy  bus- 
iness, and  the  manner  in  which  thou  dost  conduct  it — 
whether  it  be  according  to  God  or  the  Devil,  thou 
canst  easily  do  it  by  bringing  it  in  contact  with  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Certainly,  all  are  not  called 
to  be  apostles  and  expounders  of  the  Word.  Many, 
most  must  engage  in  the  business  of  the  world,  and 
there  must  be  a  way  of  integrity  in  it,  as  resx)ects 
God  and  neighbor.  The  first  question  in  the  morn- 
ing, ere  the  believer  goes  out  into  the  strife  of  bus- 
iness, should  be:  Shall  I  demonstrate  myself  a 
Christian  to-day  by  unselfishness,  by  refraining  from 
unmanly,  un- Christ-like  conduct  in  my  secular  af- 
fairs ?  and  when  the  shadows  of  night  come,  and  he  is 
about  to  commit  his  body  and  soul  to  rest, — thus  to 
enter  into  solemn  inquisition  of  his  acts  and  motives 
for  the  day,  lighted  up  by  the  fire  of  God's  spirit: 
Have  I  been,  the  past  hours  of  this  day.  Godly  or 
ungodly?  Have  I  done  unto  others,  as  I  would  they 
should  do  unto  me?  If  not,  may  God  forgive  me. 
May  I  do  so  no  more.  Help  me.  Father!  on  the  mor- 
row to  grapple  more  successfully  with  evil  in  the 
world,  and  with  selfishness  in  my  own  heart,  and  to 
get  the  supreme  victory.  Unless  there  is  this  intro- 
spection, this  scrutiny  within,  there  will  be  trouble 
in  the  future  for  the  poor  athlete.  There  is  the  dying 
hour,  and  There 

the  action  lies 


In  its  true  nature. 


CHRISTIANS  SCRUTINIZED  IN  THEIR  BUSINESS.      259 

Is  it  affirmed,  that  it  is  impossible  to  limit,  test 
closely  all  motives,  words,  acts,  in  business, — to  tlius 
hedge  about  one's  self  every  day?  'Tis  not  impossible. 
God  certainly  requires  it.  The  account  for  its  neg- 
lect will  have  to  be  rendered.  The  exercise  by  rep- 
etition, passing  into  habit,  becomes  easy  in  discharge ; 
so  that  to  do  good,  to  be  unselfish,  by  grace  may  be- 
come as  easy  as  to  do  evil,  or  as  to  be  selfish. 

For  use  almost  can  change  the  stamp  of  nature, 
And  either  quell  the  devil  or  throw  him  out 
With  wondrous  potency ! 

Do  business  men,  professedly  Christian,  consider 
how  closely  their  conduct  is  scrutinized  and  tested, 
by  the  application  to  it  of  the  precept  of  their  Master, 
on  the  part  of  those  who  do  not  profess  to  be  such  ?  Can 
they  complain  of  this  rigid  scrutiny  and  test  ?  Certainly 
not.  The  Master  has  authorized  it.  Worldly  men  will 
know  them  in  no  other  way.  Many  a  business  man, 
who  is  held  to  be  a  pillar  in  a  church,  has  no  such 
reputation  on  the  street  or  in  the  marts  of  trade. 
Many  a  poor  sinner  has  been  hardened  in  sin,  multi- 
tudes of  them  repelled  from  Christian  influence,  by 
the  sordid,  avaricious  conduct  of  some  deacon,  elder, 
or  prominent  business  man  in  a  church, — developed 
in  some  hard  bargain,  some  dishonorable  intrigue, 
some  treacherous  and  deceitful  word,  some  insensi- 
bility to  the  wants  and  woes  of  those  who  have  come 
in  contact  with  them.^  Church  members— especially 

I.  I  have  beheld  more  deliberate  malice,  more  lying  and  cheat- 
ing, more  backbiting  and  slandering,  denser  stupidity  and  greater 
self-sufficiency  among  bad-hearted  and  wrong-headed  religionists, 
than  among  any  other  order  of  human  beings.  I  have  known 
more  malignity  and  slander  conveyed  in  the  form  of  a  prayer 


260  THE  CHRIST   IN    LIFE. 

in  all  large  communities,  are  summoned  to  consider 
the  serious  fact,  which  can  neither  be  denied  or 
blinked,  that  multitudes  make  the  ungodly  life  of 
many  of  their  number,  the  occasion  of  their  stumbling 
and  of  the  rejection  of  the  Gospel.  True:  such  re- 
jection cannot  be  justified  on  such  grounds.  "Every 
one  must  answer  for  himself,"  not  for  another.  Never- 
theless, any  responsibility  for  the  cavilling,  the  stum- 
bling, and  the  hardening  of  a  soul  and  for  its  subse- 
quent loss,  is  fearful. 

If,  in  endeavoring  to  execute  this  behest  of  the 
Master,  through  his  superior  physical  or  mental  en- 
dowments; from  greater  energy  and  industry;  from 
more  favorable  circumstances;  evident  combination 
of  providences  on  his  behalf;  a  believer  should  sur- 
pass his  neighbor  in  the  acquisition  of  wealth  or  in- 
fluence, in  the  attainment  of  position  or  power,  can 
he  be  justly  chargeable  with  not  loving  his  neighbor 
as  himself  ?  Certainly  not.  Doubtless,  weightier  re- 
sponsibilities, through  all  the  stages  of  his  prosperity, 
will  rest  upon  him  who  seems  to  be  thus  provident- 

than  should  have  consigned  any  ordinary  libeler  to  the  pillory. 
I  have  known  a  person  who  made  evening  prayer  a  means  of  in- 
furiating and  stabbing  the  servants,  under  the  pretext  of  confes- 
sing their  sins. — Recreations  of  a  Country  Parson. 

The  Moslems  have  a  proverb  to  this  effect:  <'  If  your  neighbor 
has  made  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  once,  watch  him ;  if  twice 
avoid  his  society  ;  if  three  times,  move  into  another  street. — Land 
a7td  the  Book. 

"  He  can  talk  about  the  love  of  Christ,  but  he  is  a  terrible  screw 
at  a  bargain,"  they  say.  Ah  brother!  have  mercy!  the  world 
scrcAvs  us,  and  then  we  are  tempted  to  screw  the  world.— O/^ 
Town  Folks. 


THE  SUCCESSFUL  HELPING  THE  UNSUCCESSFUL.      261 

ially  favored.  He  is  accountable  for  the  right  and 
best  use  of  his  gifts  and  his  opportunities :  he  fails  to 
"occupy"  them  at  his  peril.  The  same  is  true  of  his 
neighbor.  Has  the  Queen  or  the  Prime  Minister  of 
Great  Britain,  the  President  or  the  Chief  Justice  of 
the  United  States,  abilities, — are  their  opportunities, 
superior  to  those  of  ordinary  men, — millions  beneath 
them  in  private  life  or  official  station  ?  Then  are  their 
responsibilities  commensurate.  No  disjunction  of 
them  is  possible. 

But  do  not  the  spirit  of  his  Master  and  His  com- 
mands require  of  such  a  successful  disciple,  that  he 
relinquish  some  of  his  rights, — omit  to  avail  himself 
fully  of  the  advantages,  which  superior  capacity, 
knowledge,  experience,  capital,  previous  success  se- 
cure to  him  in  advance,  that  his  inferior,  unsuccessful, 
unfortunate  brother  man  may  have  an  opportunity 
to  obtain,  for  himself  and  his,  the  necessities  of  life, 
if  not  a  competence  ?  Surely  they  do.  And  it  is  be- 
lieved, that  much  more  is  required;  that  the  prospered 
one, — believer  or  unbeliever,  lend  a  helping  hand  to 
lift  up  the  poor  and  needy  to  his  material  level, — 
even  to  descend  somewhat  himself,  if  necessary,  to 
lift  him  up;  that  he  seek  for  opportunities  to  do  this; 
remembering  that  he  too  has  been  assisted  by  others, 
otherwise  he  could  not  have  attained  to  such  heights 
of  material  prosperity;  notforgettingthat  God  in  His 
singular  providences  has  helped  him.  He  is  bound 
to  do  it;  otherwise  he  fails  to  give  one  of  the  best 
evidences  that  he  is  a  true  witness  of  his  Master.  The 
basal  principle  of  Christianity  is  a  leveling  one, — 
down  as  well  as  up, — the  rich  down,  and  the  poor  up. 


2G2  THE  CHIUST  IN   LIFE. 

It  is  painful  to  observe,  that  material  prosperity, 
instead  of  softening  the  heart  of  the  recipient,  of tener 
seems  to  indurate,  to  indispose  him  to  assist  others  in 
the  same  way  by  which  he  himself  has  been  aided. 
There  are  curmudgeons  in  every  community,  who, 
after  having  used  others  as  instruments,  and  as  step- 
ping stones,  by  which  they  have  been  enabled  to  as- 
cend the  ladder  of  fortune,  will  not  give  or  loan  a 
groat  to  help  others  to  rise  in  the  same  direction, — not 
even  those  whom  they  used,  or  who,  even,  assisted 
them  in  their  time  of  need,  except  on  ample  secur- 
ity, and  high  interest  compounded  if  not  paid  at 
maturity.  Among  the  forlorn  of  earth,  though  having 
great  possessions,  such  are  conspicuous.  Wait  till  their 
funerals.  Count,  then,  the  sincere,  not  the  profes- 
sional or  the  interested  mourners.  Note  what  woe  is 
implicated  in  the  response,  represented  as  being  given 
to  the  cry  of  such :  Remember :  that  thou  in  thy  life- 
time received' st  thy  good  things,  and  Lazarus  in  like 
manner  evil  things ;  but  now,  here,  he  is  comforted,  and 
thou  art  in  anguish.     Luke  xvi :  25. 

If,  then,  no  one  must  be  supremely  selfish,  self- 
seeking,  self-centering  in  his  schemes  of  life,  no 
one  must  be  idle.     The  eternal  command  to  all  is: 

"  Occupy  till  I  COmej" — TzpayfiaTSOffaa^e  2wq  k'pxo/iat,  be 

engaged  in  business  according  to  thy  peculiar  ability; 
place  to  use  thy  talent  or  thy  pound,  one  or  many  as 
they  may  be.  until  I  come  for  the  return  of  principal 
enhanced  by  value  of  its  use.  In  the  parable  of  the 
five  talents,  with  the  ten  pounds — symbols  both  of  the 
various  gifts  and  opportunities  bestowed  upon  men,  is 
that  significant  statement —  he  gave  to     ixdffrti}  xard 


EVERY  ONE  HAS  A  MISSION.  263 

rijv  idiav  dbvaixtv — each  man  according  to  his  ability. 
Each  one  is  summoned  to  some  mission  in  life — to 
make  the  most  of  himself  and  of  his  opportunities. 
"Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  all 
thy  might."  "  Go  work  to-day  in  my  vineyard."  There 
is  work  for  thee,  O  man!  whoever  thou  art;  thy  pe- 
culiar work,  whatever  thou  canst  best  do,  that  is  thine. 
Ascertain  thy  mission,  and  then  be  occupied  therewith. 
For  this  thou  must,  measurably  at  least,  know  thyself, 
thy  capacities,  thine  infirmities,  thy  proclivities,  thy 
desires,  thy  tastes,  thy  adaptation  to  any  particular 
work;  withal, — be  endeavoring  to  comprehend  the 
providential  voice  speaking  to  thee  out  of  thy  circum- 
stances. Some  are  called  to  cultivate  the  earth,  oth- 
ers, to  prosecute  the  various  mechanical  professions. 
Some,  to  make  laws,  others,  to  expound  and  to  execute 
them.  Some,  to  investigate,  classify  and  interpret 
phenomena  in  mind  and  matter,  and  others,  to  instruct 
the  young  in  them.  Some  are  summoned  to  handle 
the  money  and  the  merchandise  of  earth,  others  to 
embody  ideals  of  truth,  beauty,  goodness,  in  poetry, 
painting,  sculpture,  music  and  architecture.  Some, 
to  be  expounders  of  ethics  and  religion;  others,  with 
lips  touched  with  hallowed  fire — to  be  message-bear- 
ers of  the  truth  in  the  Christ  to  men.  Some,  even, 
to  be  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water, — scaven- 
gers, perhaps,  till  God  in  providence  summons  them 
to  a  higher  vocation.  Better  be  a  scavenger  than  a 
gambler  in  grain,  pork  or  cotton.  God  spake  unto 
Moses,  saying:  See:  I  have  called  by  name  Bezaleel, 
the  son  of  Uri,  the  son  of  Hur,  of  the  tribe  of  Judah: 
and  I  have  filled  him  with  the  spirit  of  God,  in  wis- 


2G4  THE  CHKIST  IN   LIFE. 

dom  and  in  miderstanding,  and  in  knowledge,  and  in 
all  manner  of  workmanship :  to  devise  cunning  works 
in  gold,  silver  and  brass,  in  cutting  of  stones  and  carv- 
ing ot  timber.  .  .  in  all  manner  of  workmanship. 
Ex.  31:1-5 

Lord,  Master!  help  each  one  of  us  to  be  diligent 
and  faithful  in  our  various  vocations,  to  be  skillful  in 
the  touch  upon  souls  we  daily  encounter,  and  in  the 
efforts  for  their  edification,  that  they  and  we  may 
gi'ow  up  to  Him  in  all  things — full-grown  men,  unto 
the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ,  that  we  may  fi- 
nally receive  the  commendation:  Well  done!  *Tis 
"  better  to  build  a  beautiful  human  creature  than  a 
beautiful  dome."  ^ 

No  one,  then,  has  a  right  to  be  indolent,  for  "  in  this 
theatre  of  man's  life,  it  is  reserved  only  for  God  and 
angels  to  be  lookers-on."  But  neither  do  they  idly 
look  on.  Incessantly  do  they  work  Rest  there  may 
be,  but  only  for  increased  vigor  in  the  resumption  of 
toil.  Jesus  said:  "My  Father  worketh  hitherto,  and 
I  work."  And  angels  "  minister."  Every  one  is  bound 
to  be  a  servitor  in  some  department  of  physical  or 
mental  toil.  Men  must  have  subsistence.  Yet,  it  may 
become  necessary  to  die,  rather  than  to  live.  Better 
to  die  than  to  do  wrong,  for  death  is  by  no  means  the 
gi'eatest  calamity  that  can  befall  one.  If  prepared  to 
die,  the  day  that  thou  f earest  as  thy  last,  will  be  the 
Birth-Day  of  Eternity  to  thy  soul.  Men  do  not  live 
by  bread  alone: 

By  every  "vvord  of  God  have  lived  and  flourished 
The  good  men,  and  the  great, 
Aye,  not  by  bread  alone.  2 
1.     Ruskin.  2.     Kathrina. 


CONDITIONS  OF  SUCCESS.  265 

Christian  enterprises  must  be  sustained,  but  not  by 
robbery,  for  this,  God  says.  He  hates.  Money  is  con- 
venient, instrumental, — a  material  necessity  for  ma- 
terial wants;  yet  God  alone  is  essential.  "The  Lord 
is  able  to  give"  His  children  "much  more  than  this." 
It  is  right  to  seek  it  for  good  ends.  It  is  a  gift  of 
God.  The  love  of  it,  not  itself,  is  the  "root  of  evil." 
In  efforts  for  its  acquisition,  some  will  succeed,  oth- 
ers will  not, — according  to  their  gifts,  industry,  op- 
portunities and  providences.  There  is  no  alternative 
but  submission,  cheerful  acquiescence,  when  those 
providences  are  seemingly  adverse.  Blessed  is  that 
unsuccessful  one  who  can  thus  graciously  submit.  Is 
it  not  a  Father  who  interposes  ?  Does  He  not  know 
best  ?  And  will  it  not  be  infinitely  better  for  the  dis- 
appointed child  since  the  Father  has  thus  decreed  ? 

In  cities,  where  business  men,  on  account  of  the 
sharpness  and  unscrupulosity  of  others,  are  driven  to 
depend  mainly  on  their  wits  and  energies  for  success, 
it  is  questionable,  whether  in  very  many  instances 
they  have  regarded  their  neighbors'  interests  as  they 
have  their  own,  when  they  have  been  successful  in 
money-getting.  And  how  can  a  professed  disciple 
follow  his  Master, — indeed  how  can  he  be  a  genuine 
disciple  at  all,  if  he  does  not  heed  His  teachings? 
The  world  will  have  the  best  in  everything,  withal 
the  cheapest,  and  that  in  the  shortest  possible  time. 
If  thou  canst  meet  such  imperative  and  exhaustive 
requisition  upon  thee,  simple  one!  thou  art  wanted; 
if  not,  gei  out  of  the  way^  thou  wilt  be  trodden  down. 
Be  assured,  if  in  thy  business  thou  wouldst  be  self- 
denying,  strictly  just,  strictly  honest,  truly  sincere, 


26G  THE  cnmsT  in  life. 

not  double-minded,  free  from  all  guile,  Btraight-for- 
wai'd,  trying  to  have  regard  for  thy  neighbor  as  for 
thyself;  thou  shalt  have  tribulation,  that  is,  thou  shalt 
be  Hailed.  This  is  the  heritage  of  all  true  disciples. 
Out  of  refining  fire  thou  mayst  come  purified,  with 
the  image  and  superscription  of  thy  Master  stamped 
upon  thee.  If  thou  canst  do  the  required  thing, — the 
best,  the  cheapest  and  the  quickest,  then,  be  content 
very  often,  to  wait  a  long  time  for  thy  pay,  that  thy 
screwing  patron  may  be  able  to  use  the  principal  and 
interest  of  thy  dues  in  some  other  traffic;  thou  art  the 
man  f 07'  him;  thou  mayst  "succeed;" — this  last,  how- 
ever, is  conditioned  on  thy  diligence  and  wit  in  col- 
lection. If  thou  art  not  such  an  one,  thou  wilt  not 
"succeed;"  thou  mightest  as  well  be  dead,  so  far  as 
the  business  of  this  world  is  concerned.  Money-mak- 
ers will  have  no  use  for  thee.  Go  down  to  thy  place 
meekly,  uncomplainingly, — servitor  for  some  one,  or 
for  some  thing, — by  the  day  or  the  hour,  and  take  thy 
stipend.  There's  thy  level,  with  this  satisfaction,  per- 
haps, that  thou,  at  last,  hast  "  touched  bottom."  The 
deacon  or  the  shrewd  brother  in  the  same  church  will 
not  discriminate  in  thy  favor,  between  thee  and  the 
infidel,  the  profane  swearer,  the  dram  drinker,  the  in- 
triguer, and  the  dishonest  defrauders  of  their  em- 
ployees. If  thou  canst  not  do  as  they  do,  the  things 
which  they  can;  why  should  he?  Does  he  not  live  to 
make  money  ?  Can  he  succeed  in  it,  favoring  thee  ?  Has 
he  not  a  "  competitor?"  Besides:  he  may  have  mort- 
gaged in  advance  a  tithe  of  that  money  expected  to 
be  made,  to  the  Lord.  If  the  Lord  will  do  thus  and 
so  to  me,  then  will  I  do  thus  and  so  to  Him — to  the 


NO  FRIENDSHIP  IN  BUSINESS.  267 

extent  of  a  tithe.  On  tlie  Lord's  Day,  and  perhaps 
in  tlie  weekly  prayer  meeting,  lie  serves  God — that  is, 
it  is  presumed  he  does;  on  week  days,  he  seizes  him- 
self. Who  art  thou,  that  thou  shouldst  judge  thy 
brother,  in  any  secret  misgiving?  He  oscillates,  as  do 
most  souls,  between  God  and  Mammon,  gravitating, 
it  must  be  charitably  supposed,  the  strongest  towards 
God.  ^^ No  friendship  in  business j'^  is  the  commercial 
cry,  when  mercy,  leniency,  patience,  forbearance 
are  plead  for  by  a  needy,  suffering  one.  "  No  friend- 
ship in  business."  No  God!  no  Christ!  no  neighbor! 
self  and  Devil  uppermost,  foremost  all  the  time! 
"  Every  man  for  himself,  and  the  Devil  take  the  hind- 
most." All  "successful"  come,  sooner  or  later,  to 
this  realization.  Thou  must  come  to  it,  or  go  down. 
Come  thou  to  it,  simpleton!  or  be  ground  to  powder 
'twixt  the  upper  and  nether  millstones  of  competitor 
and  patron.  "  No  expectation  of  forbearance  should 
be  encouraged.  Favor  and  benevolence  are  not  the 
attributes  of  good  business  men.  Strict  justice  and 
the  rigid  enforcement  of  contracts  are  their  proper 
foundations."  ^ 

Some,  if  not  many  professed  believers,  it  is  admitted, 
when  they  have  been  successful  in  the  acquisition  of 
wealth,  have  given  large  portions  of  it  to  Christian  en- 
terprises— in  the  evening  of  life,  or  as  bequests  when 
they  are  dead, — to  the  endowment  of  a  college  or 
theological  seminary,  the  sustentation  of  an  elee- 
mosynary institution  or  of  a  mission.  But  the  ques- 
tion is,  did  they  strive  for  wealth  with  such  primary 
end?    Did  they  give  themselves  to  this  business  as 

I.    Motto  of  Bankers'  and  Merchants'  Magazine. 


2G8  THE   CHlilST   IN    LIFK. 

their  life-work,  because  from  tliouglitf ul  consideration 
of  their  gifts  and  opportunities,  they  believed  they 
were  called  to  it?  And  was  it  from  assurance,  they 
could  seek  "first"  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  right- 
eousness, with  greater  efficiency  in  that  vocation  than 
in  any  other?  Is  that  righteous  kingdom  more  likely 
to  be  first  found  in  the  endowment  of  a  charitable  in- 
stitution, or  in  quick  and  direct  relief  to  the  individ- 
uals for  whom,  professedly,  it  is  endowed? — for  stone, 
brick  or  wood  structures,  or  persons  in  want? 
for  an  impecunious  corporation,  or  a  suffering  soul? 
Is  it  to  be  sought  firsiy  to-day,  in  all  the  flush  of 
health  and  activity — the  hey-day  of  life,  or  sometime 
in  the  indefinite  f  utui-e,  in  the  decline  and  decrepitude 
of  age,  when  the  poor  soul  has  little  or  no  further 
use  of  material  possessions, — no  longer  can  be  pam- 
pered by  them?  Is  it  first  to  be  sought,  to-day,  in  the 
consecration  and  direct  employment  of  the  Lord's  tal- 
ent intrusted,  or  when  dead,  through  its  adminstra- 
tion  by  another,  having  been  carefully  infolded  and 
hoarded  in  a  napkin  of  bequest?  These  are  search- 
ing interrogatories,  and  should  be  met.  And,  without 
unlawfully  passing  judgment  upon  the  motives  of 
men, — for  God  alone  can  accurately  discern  them,  and 
Jesus  has  bid  all  beware  of  hasty,  indiscriminate  esti- 
mates of  them,  yet  has  authorized  knowledge  of  char- 
acter by  the  "fruits"  of  conduct, — not  only  in  money- 
giving,  but  in  other  developments  of  interior  state, — 
from  them  all,  in  totality,  as  revealing  the  substance 
of  character;  the  previous  lives  of  some  of  these 
munificent  donors  impress,  that  personal  renown,  in- 
stead of  regard  for  God,  His  glory,  and  the  good  of 


BENEVOLENCE  WHILE  LIVING.  269 

men,  was  the  controlling  end  that  inspired  such  final 
benefactions.  Else  why  have  many,  if  not  most  of 
them,  lived  previously  in  such  a  sordid  manner — ab- 
sorbed week  out,  week  in  for  scores  of  years  in  ma- 
terial accumulation,  as  if  there  was  no  higher  end  of 
living,  and  no  account  of  their  stewardship  to  be  ren- 
dered at  the  last?  AYhy  did  they  not  manifest  more 
sensibility  for  suffering  men,  women  and  children 
they  daily  encountered?  Why  did  they  not  minister 
of  their  abundance  to  these  necessitous  ones  as  they 
went  along,  not  wait  until  their  barns  burst  with 
plenty, — with  evident  intent  of  pulling  them  down 
in  order  to  build  larger;  when  the  premonitory  voice 
of  God  came  in  some  disease,  some  quaking  of  the 
body,  some  ominous  knocking  at  the  door  of  the  heart, 
some  lightning-like  throb  in  the  brain,  that  death  was 
nigh  the  portals,  with  requisition  for  his  soul  ?  ^  "Why 

I.  Christ's  main  teachings,  by  direct  order,  by  earnest  parable, 
and  by  his  own  permanent  emotion,  regard  the  use  and  misuse 
of  money. 

It  can  be  said  of  every  rich  man,  without  much  chance  of  being 
wrong,  that  either  he  or  one  of  his  ancestors  was  a  conqueror,  a 
thief,  extortioner  or  a  sordid  person. — Ruskin. 

Twenty  thousand  thieves  landed  at  Hastings.  These  founders 
of  the  House  of  Lords  were  greedy  and  ferocious  dragoons,  sons 
of  ferocious  pirates,  .  .  .  decent  and  dignified  men  now  ex- 
isting boast  their  descent  from  these  filthy  thieves. — Emerson. 

Well,  after  saving,  and  pinching,  and  scraping,  and  stealing,  and 
freezing,  and  starving,  curmudgeon  the  skeleton  comes  face  to 
face  with  another  skeleton.  Death,  and  that  fleshless  form,  with 
an  ironic  grin,  huddles  him  away, — and  he  is  remembered  only  by 
those  he  has  cheated. 

He  would  be  willing  to  take  the  beam  out  of  his  own  eye  if  he 
knew  he  could  sell  the  timber. —  Whifple. 


270  THE   CHltlST   IN    LIFE. 

did  they  not  do  as  their  Exemplar  enjoined  and 
practiced, — distribute,  encountering  every  day  the 
children  of  want  and  sorrow  ?  Why  were  their  hearts 
so  steeled  against  human  woe?  Why  did  the  ice  of 
their  insensibility  not  melt  until  the  gi-ave  yawned  in 
prospect,  and  they  were  compelled  to  confront  the 
ghastly  fact,  that  they  could  not  take  with  them  into 
that  gaping  grave,  and  into  that  unknown  Thereafter, 
their  sordid  if  not  their  ill-gotten  gains?  As  if  ben- 
efactions in  such  hour  would  atone  for  life's  neglect, 
miserliness,  niggardliness,  and  insure  eternal  life!  As 
if  a  mere  reputation  for  benevolence, — shadow  without 
substance,  would  not  rot,  when  the  searching  judg- 
ments of  men,  and  the  inquest  of  an  omniscient  God 
sat  upon  it!  "How  much  life  teaches  us,  that  what- 
ever is  beyond  enough  breeds  worms,  and  becomes  of- 
fensive !"  ^  O  men !  build  no  longer  on  such  foundations 
as  "  gold,  silver,  precious  stones,  wood,  hay,  stubble," 
"  for  the  fire  shall  test  every  man's  work  of  what  sort 
it  is." 

If  Jesus  should  come  to  subject  to  the  fiery-test  of 
His  analysis  the  Christian  professions  of  the  best  mem- 
bers of  the  best  churches  in  the  land,  would  the  last 
result, — the  residuum  be  anything  purer,  more  disin- 
terested than  refined  selfishness?"^     Business  integ- 

1.  F.  W.  Robertson. 

2.  Their  system  is  a  sort  of  worldly-spiritualism,  cliqueism ; 
they  really  look  on  the  rest  of  mankind  as  a  doomed  carcass  which 
is  to  nourish  them  for  heaven.  .  .  .It  was  a  principle  with  Mr- 
Bulstrode  to  gain  as  much  power  as  possible,  that  he  might  use  it 
for  the  glory  of  God.  He  went  through  a  great  deal  of  spiritual 
conflict  and  inward  argument  in  order  to  adjust  his  motives,  and 
make  clear  to  himself  what  God's  glory  required.     .    .    The  years 


EEFINED   SELFISHNESS.  271 

rity  in  them, — amiability,  benevolence,  generosity,  re- 
finement, fidelity  to  convictions,  conscientiousness  en- 
lightened or  unenlightened,  unquestionably  would  be 
found.  They  would  be,  not  only  very  zealous  in  "con- 
tention for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints  "  as 
they  apprehended  it,  and  active  in  its  propagation, 
but  apparently  "filled  with  the  spirit"  in  the  unc- 
tion of  prayer,  the  fervor  of  exhortation  and  the  ec- 
stasy of  praise,  as  well  as  very  liberal  in  the  conse- 
cration of  a  large  percentage  of  the  income  of  their 
fixed  and  growing  substance  to  Christian  enterprises, 
for  the  relief  of  the  poor  and  the  needy  ;  in  a  word, 

had  been  perpetually  spinning  pleas  into  intricate  thickness  like 
masses  of  spider  web,  padding  the  moral  sensibility ;  nay,  as  age 
made  egoism  more  eager  but  less  enjoying,  his  soul  had  become 
more  saturated  with  the  belief,  that  he  did  every  thing  for  God's 
sake,  being  indifferent  to  it  for  his  own.-  Middlemarch. 

Mr,  D.  is  well  known  as  a  powerful  lay-preacher,  and  his  ap- 
peals during  periods  of  great  religious  interest  have  been  helpful 
to  the  conversion  of  many  souls,  but  his  capacity  for  converting 
bonds  is  not  less  remarkable. — Atlantic  Monthly,  July  '6(?. 

I  say  there's  something  out  o'  kilter  in  that  commonwealth,  and 
in  that  country  and  in  that  lot  o'  human  creeturs,  and  in  them 
ways  of  rulin',  and  in  them  ways  of  thinkin',  and  in  God's  world 
itself,  when  a  man  ken  spend  forty  thousand  dollars  on  the  plate- 
glass  winders  of  his  house,  and  I  ken  work  industriovis  and  hon- 
est all  my  life  and  be  beholden  to  the  State  of  Massachusetts  for 
my  poor-us  vittles  when  I'm  sixty-six  year  old. — Bijah  Micdge,  in 
Silent  Partners. 

I  like  to  see  a  parson  with  his  silk  stockin's  and  great  gold- 
headed  cane,  a  lollopin'  in  his  carriage  behind  his  fat,  prancin'  bos- 
ses, comin'  to  meetin'  to  preach  to  us  poor  folks  not  to  want  to  be 
rich  i 

Folks  allers  preaches  better  on  the  vanity  o'  riches  w^hen  they's 
in  tol'able  easy  circumstances. — Oldto-wn  Stories. — Mrs.  Stoivc. 


272  THE  CllKlST   IN   LIFE. 

they  would  seem  to  be,  according  to  the  highest  stan- 
dard yet  attained,  exemplary,  symmetrical  Christians. 
But,  it  would  be  noted,  it  was,  in  all  probability,  only 
a  percenicKje  devoted,  rarely  exceeding  ten ;  very  ex- 
ceptional, when  it  reached  to  the  "  one-half "  of  the 
mere  income  of  the  untouched  capital;  exceedingly 
rare,  if  ever  heard  of, — the  devotion  of  "one-half"  of 
the  principal  "goods"  themselves,  which  Zaccheus 
said  he  gave  "  to  the  poor."  Who  hears  of  one  giving 
"all"  that  he  has  to  the  service  of  His  Master? 
Would  it  not  doubtless  be  the  fact,  that  the  primary 
end  of  their  living,  to  the  attainment  of  which,  all 
other  objects  were  constrained  to  be  secondary  and 
subsidiary,  was  to  enhance  the  material  and  spiritual 
weal  of  their  families?  "Godliness  is  profitable  unto 
all  things,  having  promise  of  the  life  that  now  is,"  as 
well  as  "of  that  which  is  to  come."  Christians  or  un- 
believers blessed  with  vigorous  health,  prospered  in 
the  accumulation  of  material,  intellectual  and  spiritual 
comforts,  through  observance  of  the  conditions  of 
such  prosperity,  cannot  be  otherwise  than  affable, 
amiable,  refined,  generous  in  intercourse  with  those 
beneath  them, — mentally  inferior,  the  providentially 
or  the  improvidently  poor.  It  would  be  unnatural, 
at  least,  impolitic  in  them  to  demean  themselves  oth- 
erwise in  the  presence  of  their  equals  and  superiors. 
Christianity,  it  is  believed,  goes  deeper  than  this;  it 
searches  for  the  foundations;  it  is  designed  to  extend 
to  the  core  of  being;  while  it  exacts,  in  ordinary  life, 
merely  the  loving  of  one's  neighbor  as  one's  self  in 
such  relations; — in  extraordinary  emergencies,  more,  it 
is  believed,  is  required,  even  the   sacrifice  of  one's 


A  NEW  GOSPEL  PREACHED.  273 

self,  and  all  the  pet  interests  of  self,  that  others,  in 
material  or  spiritual  want,  may  participate  with  them 
in  the  blessedness  of  the  mental  and  heart  service 
rendered,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  superabundant 
goods  bestowed.  If  any  one  would  come  after  Me, 
let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily  and 
follow  Me.  Matth.  xvi :  24,  Mark  yiii :  34,  Luke  ix :  23. 
Whosoever  of  you  he  be,  that  renounceth  not  all  that 
he  hath,  or  is  not  willing  to,  if  it  be  required,  cannot 
be  My  disciple.  Luke  xiv :  33.  He  that  loveth  father 
or  mother  more  than  Me  is  not  worthy  of  Me:  and 
he  that  loveth  son  or  daughter  more  than  Me  is  not 
worthy  of  Me.  Matth.  x:37.  The  greater  love  may 
require  one,  sometimes,  to  lay  down  his  life  for  his 
brother. 

A  new  gospel  has  recently  been  preached.  The 
times  have  changed,  it  is  said.  "Wealth  has  become 
a  power  in  the  evangelization  of  the  world.  Tyrants 
nor  the  avaricious,  the  sensual  nor  the  voluptuous  mo- 
nopolize it  as  they  did  at  the  opening  of  the  Christian 
era.  "Can  the  Christian  safely  float  into  this  current? 
Certainly.  The  day  of  the  anchorite  is  gone.  A  man 
ought  to  make  money — honestly  indeed,  and  with 
moderate  haste,  but  with  a  hearty  purpose.  It  is  the 
means  of  enlarging  his  manhood.  The  very  getting, 
if  he  do  it  rightly,  is  a  minister  to  his  growth.  Men 
ought  to  be  strong  enough  to  give  full  swing  to  this 
impulse,  and  to  grow  stalwart  in  bearing  the  burdens 
of  their  accumulating.  To  hold  one's  self  back  from 
this,  from  fear  of  its  too  great  power  over  him,  is  to 
confess  himself  weak  and  infantile.     Make  money. 

18 


274  THE   CHRIST    IN    LIFE. 

Make  it  rightly.  But  by  all  means,  let  the  making  be 
the  servitor  of  your  growth  in  manhood.  .  .  Gath- 
er about  you  the  appliances  of  culture,  refinement 
and  pleasure.  Build  fine  houses,  lay  out  ele- 
gant grounds,  collect  the  treasures  of  art.  "The 
earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the  fullness  thereof."  The 
Christian  is  an  heir  of  God,  and  God  means  that 
he  shall  have  these  things  and  enjoy  them.  Self- 
denial  is  for  anchorites.  For  you,  as  soon  and  as 
fast  as  you  can  bear  them,  and  get  the  money  to  buy 
them,  are  enjoyments,  luxuries,  fine  equipage,  beauti- 
ful surroundings,  whatever  will  make  the  home  happy, 
whatever  will  minister  to  your  better  desires,  what- 
ever will  make  your  nature  rich,  refined,  exalted.     .     . 

"The  millionaire  cannot  eat  or  wear  all  his  income. 
These  are  the  lower  wants.  For  the  rest,  let  him 
spend  it  on  his  higher  nature.  Thus  will  his  wealth 
be  a  means  to  elevate  him.  The  sphere  of  his  wants 
will  greatly  increase,  and  this  will  increase  commerce, 
and  this  will  benefit  mankind."  * 

If  material  development,  culture,  civilization  be  the 
prime  end  of  Christian  living, — be  seeking  first  the 
kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness,  then  let  all 
Christian  believers  hie  themselves  to  the  universal 
scramble  for  pelf  and  gain.  But  has  human  nature 
changed.  Has  Mammon?  Is  he  not  peculiarly  the 
god  of  the  world  to-day?  Was  he  ever  worshiped 
with  such  fervor,  intensity,  splendor,  and  on  so  gigan- 
tic a  scale  before  ?  Has  the  Devil?  Can  he  not  pos- 
sess a  stock  gambler,  manipulate  a  Congressman,  run 

I.  Report  of  a  lecture  on  "Manhood  and  Money." — Chicago 
Advance. 


IS  CIVILIZATION  CHRISTIANITY?  275 

a  French  Emperor,  a  President,  a  Chicago  Mayor  as 
adroitly  as  he  ensnared  Eve,  Ananias  and  Sapphira, 
and  buffeted  the  Son  of  God?  Has  selfishness  been 
extirpated?  Has  the  millenium  come?  Is  the 
spiritual  condition  of  the  world  so  much  changed? 
What  proportion  of  the  thirteen  hundred  millions  in 
it  bearing  the  Christian  name  are  Christians  in  very 
deed?  How  much  of  Asia  is  thoroughly  evangelized, 
Christianly  enlightened?  What  is  the  condition  of 
Jerusalem,  of  Antioch,  of  the  localities  where  the 
"seven  churches"  were  planted?  How  many  saints 
of  the  apostolic  type  are  in  Europe,  where  Paul  first 
flamed  the  torch  of  Truth,  but  which,  Spencer  or  one 
of  his  disciples  declares  "  contains  a  hundred  millions 
of  Pagans  masquerading  as  Christians  ?  "  Are  Romans 
all  brethren  in  Christ?  Is  Africa, — where  the  Gospel 
was  so  early  introduced,  leavened  with  the  faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints  ?  Are  North  and  South  America, 
after  the  lapse  of  three  centuries  ?  Are  there  no  bad 
saints  or  good  sinners  in  New  York,  Brooklyn,  Boston, 
Cincinnati,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  New  Orleans  and 
Chicago?  Does  Christian  equality,  of  which  Paul 
spoke,  prevail  among  the  masses?  Is  his  rule  on  the 
subject  canonical  {now,  or  not?  When  God,  through  in- 
heritances, favoring  providences,  superior  gifts,  graces 
and  opportunities  has  enabled  some  to  accumulate 
more  than  they  need  for  comfortable  subsistence,  are 
they  bound,  or  are  they  not,  by  their  Christian  obli- 
gation, to  distribute  of  that  abundance  to  others  who 
lack,  and  are,  even,  in  gaunt  want? 

Unless  money  would  become  source  of  corruption  to 
Thy  children,  and  conduce  to  reliance  on  material  means 


27G  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

instead  of  Thy  Spirit's  potency  for  the  doing  of  Thy 
work;  intrust,  O  Lord!  a  large  amount  of  it  to  them, 
that  they  may  use  it  for  the  Christianization  of  men. 
This  is  the  cry  of  all  who  aspire  for  the  prevalence  of  Thj 
kingdom,  as  they  walk  the  streets  of  the  great  cities, 
and  behold  what  wealth  is  concentrated  in  the  hands 
of  those  who  wield  it,  not  only  for  the  accumulation 
of  more,  and  for  its  own  sake,  but  many  of  them  for 
the  demoralization  and  the  oppression  of  humanity. 
The  creed  which  they  profess  and  practice  is  substan- 
tially, in  the  last  analysis,  the  Epicurean,  let  us  eat 
and  drink,  for  to-morroio  ice  die.  They  recognize  no 
future  accountability,  no  coming  Judgment,  no  Heaven, 
no  Gehenna.  Death,  to  them,  is  an  eternal  sleep.  If 
they  are  right,  we  are  wrong,  and  we  have  misappre- 
hended Thee  and  Thy  commands.  Thy  people — as 
they  compute,  perhaps  erroneously,  must  have  ma- 
terial means  to  publish  to  every  intelligent  creature, 
"line  upon  line,  precept  upon  precept,"  what  Thou 
hast  required.  They  must  have  means  for  the  spread 
of  Thy  Truth,  through  the  oral  speech,  and  the  print- 
ed Word — scattered  as  leaves,  or  winged  to  the  ends 
of  earth:  or  manifest  Thyself  specially  without  any 
human  or  material  instrumentality  or  even  of  the 
written  "Word  itself,  that  this  terrific  enginery  of  "  the 
world,  the  flesh  and  the  Devil,"  wrought  and  combined 
through  money,  may  be  grappled  with,  and  made  to 
serve  for  Thy  glory  and  the  weal  of  men,  or  be  dis- 
abled for  further  diabolic  use. 

In  searching  society  for  the  best  representatives  of 
the  unselfish  Christ,  the  first  resort,  very  naturally,  is 
to  the  higher  class  of  religionists  in  social  station  or 


PHARISAIC  REALS  OF  THEIR  IDEAL  PIETY.         277 

pecuniary  condition,  in  intellect,  and  culture.  They 
will  not  be  found  there.  Nor  could  they  in  our  Sav- 
ior's time.  Humanity,  Jewish  and  Gentile,  in  its  hours 
of  aspiration,  naturally  enough  looked  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Sanhedrim,  to  the  Priesthood,  to  the  High 
Priest  himself  for  the  best  embodiment  of  religious 
sanctity,  of  God-likeness  in  men.  It  was  not  there, 
but  among  the  fallen  and  the  outcast,  after  Jesus  had 
made  them  whole  and  clean.  Noblest  and  most  rich- 
ly endowed  natures  are  most  prone  to  fall.  If  God, — 
Jesus  had  been  undiscerning  and  as  incompassionate 
as  men,  what  would  have  become  of  David,  Mary 
Magdalene,  Peter,  Paul?  The  Publican,  standing 
afar  off,  out  of  the  extremity  of  his  soul-agony,  smit- 
ing upon  his  breast,  cried:  "  God  be  merciful  to  me  a 
sinner."  The  Pharisee,  ^  out  of  his  self-complacency, 
prayed  thus  serenely  by  himself:  "God!  I  thank  thee, 
I  am  not  as  other  men,  extortioners,  unjust,  adulterers, 
or  even  as  this  Publican."  He  was  a  punctilious  ob- 
server of  the  Law.  Went  up  daily  to  the  Temple  to 
pray;  a  tithe-payer  of  mint,  anise  and  cummin;  a 
representative,  enlightened,  pious,  perhaps  priestly 
Hebrew.  But  the  former  went  down  to  his  house 
justified  rather  than  the  latter.     Jesus  often  went  to 

I.  It  was  a  class,  not  less  influential  and  important,  than  might 
be  produced  in  England,  bj  fusing  the  bar,  the  clergy,  and  uni- 
versities, and  the  literary  class  into  one  vast  intellectual  order. 

"The  cities  through  w^hich  Christ  walked,  the  Jerusalem  at 
which  He  kept  the  annual  feasts,  were  filled  with  men  compared 
with  whom  the  contemporaries  of  David  might  be  called  barbarous, 
men  whose  characters  had  been  moulded  during  many  centuries 
by  law,  by  trade  and  foreign  intercourse,  by  wealth  and  art,  by  lit- 
erature and  prophecy. — Ecce  Homo. 


278  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

Betliany  as  to  a  home  and  to  loved  kindred,  but  when 
He  dined  with  the  Pharisee,  He  poured  forth  on  the 
class  of  which  his  host  was  the  representative,  such 
a  tide  of  woe  and  malediction  as  was  never  heard 
fi'om  a  guest  before.  'Tis  appalling,  indeed,  that  these 
Hebrew  dignitaries,  whose  minds  and  hearts  had  been 
flooded  with  the  accumulated  light  of  forty  centuries, 
instead  of  being  from  their  nationality,  profession, 
station,  light,  finished  representatives  of  God-like- 
ness in  men;  were,  in  fact,  the  chef  (Tceuvres  of  dia- 
bolic sublety  and  cunning.  The  Savior  pronounced 
them  vipers.  No  other  word  so  glaring  in  its  im- 
agery, so  expressive  and  definitive  of  characteristic 
could  have  been  coined.  The  viperous  glare  of  the 
eye,  the  forked,  fiery,  protruding  tongue,  the  venom- 
ous fang  are  seen,  the  serpent  hiss  is  heard.  And 
these  were  Hebrew  sanctities!  The  culminating 
fruit  of  enlightened  Judaism  under  the  regimen  of 
the  Law  for  four  thousand  years !  Keals  of  Ideals ! 
Devourers  of  widows'  houses!  Kobbers  of  orphans! 
Glistering  statues  of  piety!  Whited  sepulchers!  Pil- 
lars of  savorless  salt  monumental  for  all  time !  Oh ! 
'tis  possible,  then,  for  men  to  live  under  the  prohi- 
bitions of  Sinai, — hearing  God  issue  them  with  voices, 
thunderings  and  lightnings;  be  under  the  ministry  of 
Prophets;  go  up  daily  to  Temples  to  pray;  bide  ec- 
clesiastically in  His  Sanctuary;  sacrifice  at  the  Altar; 
enter  into  the  Holy  of  Holies, — right  at  the  Advent  of 
the  expected  High  Priest  from  Heaven  and  in  His 
presence ;  and,  from  their  position,  privilege  and  light 
be  the  most  corrupt  of  men.  Serpents!  Brood  of 
vipers! 


SELF-SEEKING  EELIGIONISTS  OF  MODEEN  TIMES.     279 

Such  startling  revelation  did  He,  who  "knew  what 
was  in  man,"  give  of  the  hearts  and  characters  of  the 
professed  Sanctities  of  His  time.  Should  He  come 
in  like  manner  to  this  generation,  with  "Fan  in  His 
hand,"  what  multitudes,  indeed,  how  many  church 
dignitaries  might  find  themselves  as  spiritually  desti- 
tute, if  not  as  positively  corrupt,  considering  their 
light,  as  were  these  Scribes,  Pharisees  and  Sadducees. 
Dost  thou,  church  member !  deem  this  an  uncharitable 
saying?  Test  thyself.  If  the  Master  should  come 
to  thee  this  night,  would' st  thou  be  delighted  to  see 
Him,  and  to  open  thy  heart  to  Him?  or  would' st 
thou  not  beg  Him  to  defer  His  visit  to  thee  individ- 
ually, till  thou  wast  better  prepared  to  meet  and  to 
receive  Him  ?  Indeed,  is  there  not  reason  to  believe 
thou  would' st  shrink  in  terror  from  the  encounter, 
and  flee  to  escape  the  scrutiny? 

Can  condition  be  more  appalling,  than  that  of  a 
supremely  selfish  one,  hopelessly  on  the  down  grade, 
conscious  all  the  while,  it  may  be,  of  the  descent? — a 
soul  chanting  the  dirge  of  its  own  obsequies  to  the 
muffled  drum-stroke  and  the  despairful  wail! — a  soul 
already  progressed  so  far  to  the  nethermost,  that  re- 
covery from  the  fearfully  increased  and  ever  increas- 
ing momentum  of  avaricious  habit,  save  through 
Divine  interposition,  is  impossible !  In  first  increment, 
decline,  like  that  of  glaciers,  may  be  noiseless,  and 
without  landmarks  for  observation,  imperceptible, — 
extending,  perhaps,  through  stretches  of  time.  But 
at  the  last  comes  the  sudden  descent  with  terrible 
velocity.  The  feet  slide  in  due  time.  The  destruc- 
tion is  "without  remedy." 


280  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

In  that  dread  moment,  how  the  frantic  soul 
Raves  round  her  clay  tenement  and  shrieks  for  help! 
But  shrieks  in  vain  ! 

Morbid  and  distorted  representation,  it  is  said,  this 
is.  Can  it  be  possible  of  such  dread  reality?  Is 
there  a  soul  that  sometimes  has  not  had  forebodings? 
What  must  that  foreboded  be?  There  have  been 
many  such  death-bed  scenes,  from  which  witnesses 
have  recoiled  with  terror.  Even  Tom  Paine, — the  idol 
or  the  fetish  of  his  distinguished  successor  in  the  Uni- 
ted States, — with  all  his  assumed  bravado  and  indif- 
ference with  regard  to  his  future  destiny,  was  forced 
in  his  last  hours  to  confess  his  mistake,  and  to  bitterly 
lament  it.^ 

Let  a  self-seeking,  intriguing  one  enter  the  min- 
istry and  seek  there  to  thrive.  He  will  fail.  The 
vocation,  in  fact,  being  one  of  service,  will  bring  no 
nutriment  to  himself  or  the  flock  he  ostensibly  serves. 
The  career  in  that  relation  must  inevitably  be  brief. 
Driven,  as  must  be,  from  the  sacred  vocation  by  want 
of  results  deemed  adequate  and  properly  remunera- 
tive, by  the  weariness  of  hearers,  or,  perhaps,  by  their 
disgust,  he  will  resort  to  the  nearest  shift, — perhaps 

I.  Once  when  his  young  Quaker  nurse  was  in  his  room,  some 
of  his  infidel  associates  came  to  him,  and  in  a  loud,  heartless  man- 
ner said:  "Tom  Paine!  it  is  said  you  are  turning  Christian,  but 
we  hope  you  will  die  as  you  have  lived,"  and  then  went  away. 
Turning  to  that  nurse,  Paine  said:  "You  see  what  miserable 
comforters  they  are."  Once  he  asked  her  if  she  had  read  any  of 
his  writings.  "  She  had  begun  the  'Age  of  Reason,' "  she  said, 
"but  it  made  her  so  miserable  that  she  flung  it  into  the  fire."  "  I 
wish  all  had  done  as  you  did,"  he  said,  "for  if  the  Devil  ever  had 
any  agency  in  any  work,  he  had  it  in  my  writing  that  book. — 
Memoirs  of  Stephen  GreUet  (J^uaker). 


ANTI-CHRIST  IN  SELF.  281 

an  agency  or  a  secretaryship  if  it  can  be  secured. — The 
reference  is,  of  course,  to  individuals  sometimes  seen, 
by  no  means  to  the  noble,  good,  self-denying  class, 
who  occupy  such  needed  and  essential  positions. — 
Gravitating  to  office  seeking,  to  land,  stock  or  grain 
gambling,  for  gravitate  he  will  still  downward— easy 
is  the  descent;  for  cold-blooded.  Atheistic  disregard 
of  the  interests  of  others,  he  will  surpass  the  profes- 
sional politician,  as  a  Pharisee  could  be  sharper  in 
his  bargains,  keener  in  his  robbery  than  a  Publican 
in  his  extortion.  The  names  of  such  will  be  seen 
sometimes  in  the  denominational  periodicals,  in  con- 
nection with  a  notice  of  some  ordination,  or  services 
of  dedication;  or,  in  times  of  special  religious  inter- 
est, it  will  be  announced  from  some  pulpit,  that  such 
an  one  will  preach  to  sinners! 

Thus  one  gravitated  from  the  ministry,  and  came 
to  disastrous  bankruptcy  in  one  of  our  large  cities. 
Bitter  ejaculations  of  *' swindler  "  and  "swindling" 
were  heard  from  the  mouths  of  suffering  creditors 
whose  confidence  had  been  abused. 

One  morning  subsequent,  there  appeared  in  the 
daily  journals  of  that  city  a  minute  of  a  judgment  as 
follows:     "Judgment  vs. for  $.r,000.00." 

One  seemed  to  be  among  the  meekest  and  the 
humblest  of  men,  but,  when  crossed  in  his  purposes, 
selfishness,  subtlety  and  cunning  would  uncoil  them- 
selves. He  did  not  love  money,  but  power, — the  sway 
of  his  imperious  will.  He  had  poetic  sensibility,  but 
no  heart;  intellectual  acumen,  but  no  breadth  or  mag- 
nanimity; was  vociferous  for  freedom,  but  tyrannical 
in  official  intercourse;   became  the  self-elected  ex- 


282  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

poser  of  official  intrigue,  mismanagement  and  wrong, 
and  well  did  lie  do  it,  though,  as  was  evident,  under 
the  sway  of  personal  animosities; — finally,  when 
power  came  to  his  grasp,  fell  with  facility  into  the 
practice  of  the  same  oppression  he  had  anathematized 
in  others.  He  had  espoused  the  cause  of  the  wronged, 
but  soon  demonstrated  that  his  little  finger  would  be 
thicker  than  the  loins  of  official  fathers,  were  he  in- 
stalled in  their  place.  "  The  Devil's  darling  sin  is 
pride  that  apes  humility." 

These  were  the  manufactures  under  the  formalism 
of  a  third  of  a  century.  Such  results  are  not  only 
possible,  but  real  in  modern  times,  notwithstanding 
the  restraining  influences  of  Christianity,  as  they 
were  glaring  and  conspicuous  under  the  constant  tui- 
tion of  the  Master  Himself. 

If  self-expatriation;  if  deliberate  crucifixion  of  the 
flesh,  and  of  motives  of  living  that  ordinarily  impel 
men;  if  hardships  and  privations;  if  malarial  climes; 
if  uncongenial  society;  if  sickness  and  constant  ex- 
posedness  to  violent  death;  if  a  sanctified  vocation 
merely  could  transform  self-willed,  selfish,  self-seek- 
ing, cold  and  unsympathetic  natures  into  those  like 
Christ's; — Pharisees,  who  "compassed  sea  and  land 
to  make  one  proselyte,"  or  Jesuits,  who  circumnavi- 
gated the  earth  and  penetrated  every  clime  for  that 
same  purpose,  ought  to  have  furnished  the  finest 
illustrations  of  the  Christian  spirit.  No.  "Their 
skies,  not  their  souls  are  changed  who  cross  the  seas," 
and  a  superior  one  hath  said,  "though  I  give  my  body 
to  be  burned,  and  have  not  love,  it  profiteth  me 
nothing." 


MODERN  PETERS  AND  SONS  OF  ZEBEDEE.  283 

Natural  infirmities,  intensified  by  the  unrestrained 
indulgence  and  riot  of  many  years,  are  often  plead  in 
extenuation  of  despicable  conduct.  They  are  the 
Devil's  furnace,  into  which  he  bides  his  time  to  shovel 
the  fuel  of  Gehenna.  As  if  believers  were  not  bound 
to  keep  their  "natural  infirmities"  under  proper  con- 
trol, if  grace  has  not  been  able  to  get  the  mastery ! 
As  if  they  will  not  be  responsible  for  their  indul- 
gence! As  if  a  modicum,  at  least,  of  the  tincture  of 
Divine  love  men  profess  to  have  received  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  could  not  be  infused  into  their  natural  "gall  of 
bitterness!"  As  if  a  Satanic  will,  which  never  cedes, 
yields  and  relaxes,  is  not  to  be  subordinate  to  the  will 
of  God,  and  not  to  be  somewhat  restrained  by  due  re- 
gard to  the  wills  of  others ! 

Back  through  Peter,  believer  as  he  was,  and  who, 
after  the  crucifixion,  proved  so  constant  and  true ;  and 
whom  He  had,  not  long  before  and  so  emphatically 
pronounced  blessed,  the  Savior  discerned  the  Evil 
One  subtle  and  foul,  and  exclaimed:  "Get  thee  be- 
hind Me,  Satan !  thou  art  a  skandalon  to  Me ;  for 
thou  mindest  not  the  things  of  God,  but  of  men."  If 
he  succeeded  in  entering  and  possessing  for  the  time 
an  ancient  apostle  under  the  eye  of  his  Master,  it  is  not 
improbable,  that  he  would  be  successful  sometimes  in 
entering  and  possessing  modern  apostles.  Thus,  also, 
did  He  rebuke  others — the  sons  of  Zebedee,  who 
would  call  down  fire  from  heaven  to  consume  the  in- 
hospitable and  unreceptive  Samaritans:  "Ye  know 
not  what  manner  of  spirit  ye  are  of." 

It  is  not  surprising,  that  the  doctrine  of  a  Purga- 
tory, and  of  an   Intermediate  State,  finds  credence 


284  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

with  SO  many,  and  that  it  is  one  of  the  fixed  beliefs 
and  cardinal  teachings  of  a  large  and  very  powerful 
sect,  when  the  state  of  many  regenerate  and  unregen- 
erate  hearts  is  considered.  How  it  is  possible,  that 
such,  who  profess  to  be  Christians,  should  they  be 
suddenly  summoned  to  their  account,  in  the  height  of 
their  intrigues,  over-reaching,  disregard  of  the  rights 
and  interests  of  others;  how  it  is  possible,  that  such, 
before  they  have  reviewed  their  conduct  and  repented 
of  it,  and  have  become  somewhat  purified  through 
the  process,  can  pass  directly  into  the  Heavenly 
world — the  eternal  abode  of  the  pure,  the  un-self- 
seeking,  without  being  compelled,  necessarily,  to 
tarry  for  a  season  in  an  intermediate,  purgatorial 
quarantine,  cannot  be  comprehended.  True:  those 
saved  are  saved  forever,  but,  it  is  not  believed,  against 
their  will,  or  without  faith  coadjunct  and  coadjutant. 
"  Faith  without  works  is  dead."  It  is  said  of  some 
that  they  will  be  saved,  "yet  so  as  by  fire."  Prob- 
ably the  class  referred  to,  if  they  have  been  born 
again,  and  have  not  rested  their  hopes  of  ultimate 
salvation  on  "commandment  keeping,"  will  be  com- 
prised in  that  class  of  salvables.  It  is  quite  certain, 
however,  that  their  tvorks  ivill  he,  somewhere,  first 
burned  up.  If  not,  the  implication  is  fearful,  that 
both  they  and  their  works  will  be  reserved  conjointly 
for  another  kind  of,  and  an  eternal  burning! 

The  existence  and  manifestation  of  depravity, — 
selfishness  condensed  and  compacted,  is  possible, 
then,  with  enjoyment  of  the  best  light  and  possession 
of  the  best  means  of  grace.  May  it  not  be  possible, 
then,  for  men  to  live  under  the  Gospel  dispensation; 


MAMMON   WORSHIP.  285 

in  the  full  blaze  of  revealed  Christianity,  and  of  nine- 
teen centuries  of  its  light;  to  be  pillars  in  the  church 
of  God,  indeed,  to  minister  at  the  very  altar,  to  be 
days-men  between  sinners  and  God, — presentments 
of  seraphs — counterfeit  ones  though  they  be,  in  speech 
and  prayer,  gifts  and  graces,  pulpit  tones,  utterances 
and  attitudes;  yet  not  only  be  miserable,  unregener- 
ate  sinners  themselves,  but  so  corrupt  in  heart,  as  to 
receive  justly,  fittingly  from  Jesus  the  malediction: 
"Serpents!  Brood  of  vipers!  How  can  ye  escape  the 
damnation  of  Gehenna?"  O  'tis  possible!  "  He  that 
hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear." 

Besides  these  and  other  serious  deflections  from 
right,  it  may  be  said  generally,  that  intense  worldli- 
ness,  love  of  money,  and  of  the  power  that  money  se- 
cures,— Mammon  apotheosized,  are  glaring  character- 
istics of  English  speaking  society,  of  many  that  bear 
the  Christian  name ;  pervading  even  very  many 
churches,  so  that  there  is,  seemingly  at  least,  more 
formalism  and  theory  in  the  ecclesiastical  life  than 
practical  holy  living;  self  is  primarily  enthroned,  and 
all  activity  made  to  concenter  to  its  exaltation, — God 
and  one's  neighbor  being  secondarily  regarded.  As 
when  Jesus  was  in  the  flesh,  God-likeness,  Christ- 
likeness  is  not  found  so  purely  in  the  loftiest  eccle- 
siastical places;  in  the  Papal  See;  the  metropolitan 
bishopric;  sometimes,  it  is  feared,  not  even  in  the 
theological  professorship,  the  editorial  chair,  the 
missionary  secretaryship  or  the  pulpit;  as  in  the  cot 
of  some  poverty-stricken  widow,  or  of  some  child  of 
privation  and  suffering. 

Now :  it  is  not  intended  to  intimate,  that  the  clergy 


286  THE   ClililST   IN   LIFE. 

of  the  day,  as  a  class,  are  at  all  as  degenerate  as  many 
of  the  corrupt  priests  who  ministered  at  the  altar  in 
our  Savior's  time; — most  of  them,  it  is  hoped,  are 
Godly  men,  incorrupt  in  faith  and  life, — earnestly 
and  sincerely  seeking  the  temporal  and  eternal  weal 
of  others;  some,  however,  demonstrate  that  they  are 
possessed  by  a  self-seeking  spirit,  and  by  unsanctified 
ambition;  are  too  haughty,  and  have  too  little  of  the 
meekness  and  gentleness  of  their  Master.  Nor  is  it 
intimated,  that  the  deacons,  elders,  and  chief  men  in 
churches  are  like  those  Pharisaic  worshipers,  who  de- 
voured widows'  houses  in  their  business,  and  for  pre- 
tence made  long  prayers.  Many  of  them  are  among 
the  salt  of  the  earth.  But  fidelity  requires  the  dec- 
laration, that  the  mass  of  church-members  seem  to  be 
so  deeply  absorbed  in  the  pursuits  of  this  life,  with- 
out proper  regard  for  the  next,  that  it  is  difficult,  six 
days  out  of  seven,  to  distinguish  them  from  world- 
lings, who  make  no  pretensions  to  Christianity, — to 
care  or  thought  for  the  future.  Jesus  speaks  to  such 
by  His  unselfish  life,  and  all  potencies  from  the  un- 
seen world  cry:  Awake  thou  sleeper  on  the  banks  of 
eternal  perdition!  awake  or  be  lost!  Thou  canst  not 
prevail  with  God  a  self-seeker.  Thou  canst  not  ac- 
quire any  transient  or  permanent  influence  with  thy 
fellows — until  thou  dost  live  for  God's  glory,  and  the 
weal  of  men.  Once  more,  as  with  the  blare  of  a  trum- 
pet, in  the  name  of  the  Crucified  One,  this  theme  pro- 
claims to  thee;  this  writer  dares  to  take  courage  to 
say  to  thee :  Tliou  must  he  horn  again.  Awake !  Flee 
for  refuge  to  the  Saving  One  or  thou  art  lost! 

Between  Hebrew  society  in  the  time  of  Jesus,  and 


REFINED  SELFISHNESS.  287 

that  of  Christendom  at  the  present  time,  there  is 
some  analogy.  There  were  gorgeous  synagogues  in 
every  portion  of  the  Sacred  Land;  many  hundreds  in 
the  great  city;  and  there  was  the  Temple  itself,  to 
which  the  Tribes  went  up  from  all  sections  thrice  a 
year,  and  in  which  there  was  a  daily  prayer  meeting. 
Art,  science,  wealth  were  not  spared  to  make  them 
imposing  to  the  outward  eye  and  attractive  to  the 
self-complacent,  courtly  worshipers  within.  There 
was  painting  and  statuary,  the  air  was  redolent  with  in- 
cense, and  music  swelled  forth  its  inspiring  strains. 
They  were  thronged  with  the  high  dignitaries,  the 
wealth,  fashion  and  beauty  of  the  metropolitan  city; 
but  Jesus  was  not  ordinarily  there.  He  was  on  the 
street,  in  by-ways,  in  a  valley,  or  on  a  hill-top,  at 
the  gate-way,  by  the  side  of  the  diseased  and  suffer- 
ing, teaching  the  mysteries  of  His  kingdom  and  min- 
istering personall}^  to  the  necessities  of  the  needy. 

Go  into  a  congregation  of  New  Englanders  in  any 
of  our  cities.  They  are  refined  in  their  manners, 
symmetrical  in  their  piety,  earnest  in  whatever  they 
undertake.  It  is  a  pleasant  sight, — a  sermon  in  itself, 
this  orderly  grouping  of  them  by  families  in  their  re- 
spective pews.  The  services  of  the  pulpit,  the  music 
of  the  choir,  the  air  of  the  worshipers  are  in  accord. 
Well-to-do,  and  with  the  super-touch  of  grace  on 
their  culture,  they  are  of  course  genial.  They  in- 
voke blessings  on  all  and  look  benignantly,  sympa- 
thetically upon  those  socially  beneath  them, — the 
poor,  the  needy.  "Lord!  let  Thy  kingdom  speedily 
come,  and  Thy  holy  will  be  done  Here  as  in  Heaven," 
seams  their   prayer.     Their  theory  of  religion  em- 


288  THE   CHBIST   IN   LIFE. 

bodies  almost,  if  not  quite  completely,  the  perfection 
of  Christ's  precepts.  If  more  light  breaks  forth  from 
God's  Word,  they  are  ready  to  receive  it  into  their 
heads  and  hearts.  They  take  with  them  into  their  re- 
ligious movements  the  same  "faculty," — common 
sense,  which  they  employ  in  their  secular  affairs, 
sanctifying  it  for  the  holy  purpose.  Yet,  mainly, 
their  Christian  activities  are  directed  to  the  elevation, 
— the  social,  literary  and  Christian  culture  of  them- 
selves and  families,  through  the  church,  the  pulpit, 
the  Sunday  school  and  the  sociable.  This  is  desirable, 
important,  obligatory.  But  in  the  origination,  di- 
rection, control  of  all  this,  may  not  the  selfish  pre- 
dominate over  the  higher  motives  ?  May  not  love  for 
one's  family,  zeal  for  the  prosperity  of  one's  church 
degenerate  into  forgetfulness  of  the  claims,  the  ne- 
cessities and  the  relations  of  others  ?  Because  the  ser- 
vices of  God's  House  are  so  grateful  to  the  religious 
sensibilities,  so  exquisitively  adapted  to  meet  the 
soul's  wants;  because  the  educational  influence  is  so 
potent,  refining,  stimulative,  healthful;  and  because, 
on  the  other  hand,  ministry  to  others  beneath  them 
in  the  social  scale  and  in  want  is  not  attractive,  if  not 
repulsive, — a  weariness  for  the  body,  a  burden  for  the 
soul,  a  cross  for  the  spirit;  shall  it  be  presumed,  that 
occupation  with  the  first  to  the  neglect  of  the  latter 
is  acceptable  to  God?  Elevate  thyself  and  thine  so- 
cially, educationally,  spiritually,  but  fail  not  to  ex- 
tend thy  hand,  while  so  doing,  to  lift  up  others  to  thy 
level,  even  if  thou  hast  to  descend  somewhat  to  do  it. 
Love  ever  descends.  True  life  ever  is  in  sacrifice — 
service.     "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.'* 


SPIRITUAL  DESTITUTION  IN  LARGE  CITIES.         289- 

"  The  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto, 
but  to  minister."  "If  any  will  come  after  Me,  let 
liim  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily  and 
follow  Me."  The  disciple  is  not  above  his  Master, 
nor  the  servant  above  his  Lord.  "If  I,  then,  your 
Lord  and  Master  have  washed  your  feet,  ye  also 
ought  to  wash  one  another's  feet."  "For  I  have  given 
you  an  example,  that  ye  should  do  as  I  have  done  to 
you."  "  Yerily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  the  servant  is 
not  greater  than  his  Lord."  "  If  ye  know  these  things, 
happy  are  ye  if  ye  do  them." 

That  Temple,  externally,  is  an  architectural  thing 
of  beauty  and  of  joy, — most  amiable  of  tabernacles  to 
worshipers ;^with  spire  shooting  heavenward;  with 
sumptuously  arranged  and  adorned  interior;  easeful 
seats;  golden  fronted  organ;  groined  arches;  embel- 
lished ceiling;  stained  windows;  soft,  religious  light. 

While  this  highly  favored  class  with  their  families 
are  seated  so  comfortably,  absorbed  in  the  refined 
discourse,  pervaded  by  the  unction  of  the  represent- 
ative prayer,  lifted  heavenward  by  the  songs  of  praise; 
in  unsightly  portions  of  the  city  are  multitudes  of 
men,  women  and  children  in  rags,  squalor,  vice,  want. 
They  are  diseased  in  body  and  mind.  The  atmos- 
phere, material  and  spiritual,  reeks  with  putridity. 
There  are  children  without  father  or  mother  or  friend. 
— No  Christ,  no  Sabbath,  no  prayer  in  that  neighbor- 
hood. Some,  perhaps  many,  are  antagonizing  earn- 
estly with  all  possible  might  in  their  weakness,  to 
keep  themselves  from  being  utterly  throttled  by  the 
evils  inseparable  from  their  destitution.      No  smile 

19 


290  THE   CHKIST   IN   LIFE. 

from  any  well-to-do  one  casually  in  contact,  or  pas- 
sing by  on  the  other  side,  lights  on  them  in  their 
stolid,  despairful  state.*  Benisoned  are  they  by  no 
"  God  bless  you;"  braced  by  no  helpful  word;  strength- 
ened by  no  material  aid.  Alone  they  antagonize  with 
misfortune,  with  self-degradation  and  self-ruin  it 
may  be.  No  human  sympathy  eases  the  way  down. 
He,  whose  Eye  pierces  into  every  covert,  as  overt 
place,  pities,  feels.  But  physically  and  sj^iritually 
blighted,  temporally  if  not  eternally  lost,  they  re- 
alize it  not. 

Do  those  well-to-do,  those  spiritually  exalted  wor- 
shipers;— do  they,  in  the  recipiency  of  those  heav- 
enly blessings  descending  upon  their  souls  like  the 
dew  of  Hermon; — do  they,  in  the  depth  of  their 
hushed  communion  with  their  God; — do  they,  for  a 
moment,  think  of  those  hungry,  thirsty,  naked,  de- 
spairful, it  may  be  criminal  ones,  draining  the  cup  of 
sorrow  to  its  dregs?  Should  Jesus  descend  on  one 
of  these  balmy  Sabbaths  in  June,  whither  would  those 
wounded  feet ^rs/ tend?  To  that  Temple, — majestic 
apostrophe  to  His  name,  illumined  by  His  light,  in- 
censed by  His  love,  pervaded  by  His  Spirit?  To  it, 
doubtless.  He  would  be  attracted,  and  in  it,  unques- 
tionably. He  would  be  present  in  some  degree  by  His 

I.  There  is  an  extreme  degree  of  suffering,  which  seems  more 
ruinous  to  the  soul  than  the  most  enervating  prosperity.  When 
existence  itself  cannot  be  supported  without  an  unceasing  and  ab- 
sorbing struggle,  there  is  no  room  in  the  heart  for  an j  desire,  but 
the  wretched  animal  instinct  of  self-preservation,  which  merges 
in  an  intense,  pitiable,  but  scarcely  blamable  selfishness.  What 
tenderness,  what  gratitude,  what  human  virtue  can  be  expected  of 
the  man  who  is  holding  a  wolf  by  the  ears.'' — Eccc  Homo. 


SKANDALA  IN  THE  WAY.  291 

sympathy  through  His  Spirit  and  His  benediction;— 
for  where  His  disciples  are,  He  ever  is,  though  they 
be  imperfect.  But  would  He,  bodily, ^rs/  go  there? 
Not  there,  it  is  thought,  but  to  those  scenes  of  desti- 
tution, those  haunts  of  woe.  Would  He,  wending 
thitherward,  pass  by  any  on  the  other  side?  Never! 
"  For  the  Son  of  Man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that 
which  was  lost" 

Because  there  is  not  more  conformity  between  pre- 
cept and  practice,  profession  and  possession ;  because 
the  fruits  of  theoretic  Christianity  are  not  more  pro- 
lific in  the  lives  of  its  followers;  because  it  seems  to 
fail  to  have  the  power  that  is  naturally  looked  for  on 
the  hearts  of  men;  there  is  a  prevailing  distrust,  if 
not  disbelief,  among  many  thoughtful  and  intelligent, 
not  so  much  of  the  divinity  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  though 
"  some  doubt,"  as  they  have  ever  and  ever  will  to 
the  end, — not  so  much  of  the  divine  thought  in  the 
Scriptures  or  of  most  of  their  cardinal  teachings  as 
of  the  Christianity  of  its  professors,  with  perhaps 
few  and  rare  exceptions, — of  there  being,  after  all, 
any  such  soul-change  experienced  as  is  denominated 
and  understood  by  the  terms,  "  new  creature,"  "  new 
hearts,"  "regeneration,"  "new  birth,"  "conversion;" 
that  it  means  nothing  more  than  those  revolutions  in 
men's  tastes  and  habits  which  often  take  place,  and  in 
that  mental  and  moral  improvement,  which  is  the  re- 
sult of  experience  and  discipline;  that  there  is  no  dif- 
ference at  all  in  men,  only  as  it  exists  in  natural  con- 
stitution, in  civilization,  in  culture  secular  and  relig- 
ious, in  the  different  circumstances  under  which  they 
come  up  to  maturity;    that  the  manifested  zeal  for 


292  THE   CHltlST   IN    LIFE. 

the  Lord  and  the  weal  of  men,  in  many  if  not  most 
instances,  is  more  the  prompting  of  inherent  energy 
and  restlessness  to  achieve  something,  than  of  unsel- 
fish love.  This  distrust  and  unbelief  keep  them  from 
Christian  influence,  from  the  House  of  God.  The  de- 
cisive test  they  remorselessly  apply  to  professedly 
Christian  character,  and  thus  determine  to  their  sat- 
isfaction the  genuineness  or  baseness,  the .  value  or 
worthlessness  of  profession,  as  they  are  authorized  by 
the  Christ.  They  are  not  to  be  reprehended  for  it, 
only  they  should  be  discriminate  and  charitable — 
striving  to  distinguish  between  the  true  and  the  false, 
the  unselfish  and  the  selfish, — which  is  purely  one  or 
the  other,  or  intermixture  of  both.  They  should  con- 
sider, that  the  professedly  regenerate  equally  with 
the  unregenerate  are  frail, — though  they  ought  to  be 
better  men — having  the  promise  of  "  being  kept  by 
the  power  of  God  through  faith  unto  salvation,"  if 
they  will  avail  themselves  of  it;  that  in  common  with 
all  men,  they  also  have  animal  appetites,  passions 
and  desires  clamorous  for  gratification;  families  look- 
ing to  them  for  subsistence  in  a  selfish  world;  that 
they  are  exposed  to  inward  and  outward  corruption, 
— being  stimulated,  harassed,  tried  as  are  all  men; 
and  oft-times  assaulted  with  temptations  that  are 
peculiar  to  their  conditions.  The  world  screws  them, 
and  they  screw  others  for  very  life. 

This  skeptically  inclined  class  is  not  forward,  dem- 
onstrative or  communicative  of  their  distrust  or  dis- 
belief, save  to  confidential  associates.  But  there  is 
a  noisy,  depraved  class,  with  vicious  intent,  who  are 
ever  seeking  to  make  the  faults  and  inconsistencies 


SELF  AND  MAMMON  DETHRONED,  GOD  ENTHRONED.  293 

of  believers  a  basis  for  denunciation  of  Christianity, 
and  of  all  who  profess  it,  and  of  all  means  of  grace. 
They  eat  up  the  sins  of  God's  people  as  they  eat  bread. 
They  work  mischief  among  the  young  and  the  weak- 
minded,  inoculating  them  with  their  foul  and  skepti- 
cal virus,  biasing  them  against  all  Christian  influ- 
ences, causing  them  to  stifle  the  voice  of  a  reprov- 
ing conscience  and  to  refrain  their  feet  from  the 
House  of  God.  The  results  of  this  darkness  of  un- 
belief are  disastrous.  Multitudes  are,  in  consequence, 
in  subjection  to  the  Evil  One — trained  for  spiritual 
havoc  Here,  and  for  perdition  in  the  Future.  The 
skandala  must  be  taken  out  of  the  way.  There  must 
be  radical  revolution  in  popular  Christian  life;  it 
must  conform  nearer  to  the  Divine  precept  and  the 
sacred  profession  itself.  Self  and  Mammon  must  be 
dethroned  and  God  enthroned.  Believers  must  ap- 
proximately, at  least,  love  their  neighbors  as  them- 
selves. Unbelievers  and  blasphemers  must  no  longer 
have  occasion  to  tauntingly  inquire :  "  What  do  ye 
more  than  others?"  "Do  not  heathen  and  publicans 
the  same?"  Otherwise,  the  numbers  of  intelligent 
and  thoughtful  skeptics,  and  of  noisy  blasphemers 
will  continue  to  increase,  the  Houses  of  worship  to 
be  half-filled,  and  evangelizing  influences  cease  to 
have  their  full  power  on  unregenerate  men. 

These,  doubtless,  will  be  esteemed  by  some,  austere 
sayings.  Who  can  bear  them  ?  But  let  successful 
business  men  who  profess  to  be  Christians  be  brought 
in  succession  to  the  bar  of  Christ's  precepts,  to  the 
test  of  His  inquisition,  and  we  shall  soon  see.  By 
•what  means,  sir!  hast  thou  been  able  to  succeed, — to 


294  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

thus  accumulate?  Enter  into  the  details.  Start  from 
the  commencement  of  thy  business  career,  analyze, 
or  let  the  Divine  Searcher  analyze  for  thee  the  suc- 
cessive steps,  day  by  day,  by  which  thou  wast  enabled 
to  get  the  start  of  thy  neighbor,  and  to  bear  him  down 
in  the  race.  Be  honest,  sir!  in  these  revelations.  Dost 
thou  say,  it  was  by  thy  superior  sagacity  and  intelli- 
gence? Ah!  was  it  always  so?  Was  there  not  inter- 
woven sometimes  some  intrigue?  Was  there  not 
some  deception,  some  misrepresentation  i^racticed? 
Thou  speakest  of  thy  superior  sagacity  and 
intelligence.  Who  gave  them  to  thee?  And 
didst  thou  have  a  right,  as  a  professed  believer, 
to  employ  them  to  the  disadvantage  of  thy  neighbor? 
Was  it  not  required  of  thee,  that  thou  shouldst  re- 
gard him  as  thyself, — to  look  upon  his  things  as 
upon  thine  own  ?  Answer !  as  one  must  answer  at  the 
bar  of  the  Christ's  judgment.  Hast  thou  not  on  oc- 
casions designedly  dropped  some  word  to  bias  others 
against  him  or  his  interest,  when  thou  thoughtest  the 
results  would  inure  to  thy  benefit?  Answer!  out  of 
the  secret  conclaves  of  thy  heart,  lighted  up  by  the 
fire  of  God's  Spirit:     Answer! 

Dost  thou  say,  that  thy  success  was  chiefly  result- 
ant, not  of  the  exertion  of  thy  sagacity  and  skill,  but 
of  thy  superior  money  capital?  And  to  whom  wast 
thou  indebted  for  this  capital  ?  and  did  this  divinely 
beneficent  One  authorize  thee  to  employ  it  to  the  det- 
riment of  thy  neighbor?  And  art  thou  not,  by  as 
much  as  thou  dost  possess  more  than  thy  neighbor, 
to  the   same   extent  responsible?  particularly    that 


ADULTEEATED   HEAVENLINGS.  295 

thou  dost  take  care  not  to  make  it  an  instrument  of 
injury  to  him  ? 

Said  a  Godless  man  in  public  life,  when  spoken  to 
on  the  necessity  of  being  born  again  in  order  to  be 
saved:  "I  know  it  all, — the  power  and  beauty  of 
Christianity  in  the  family,  the  beneficent  influences 
of  worship  on  children,  for  I  had  a  praying  mother." 
He  had  interesting  children,  some  of  whom,  though 
young,  were  fast  falling  into  his  demoralizing  habits. 
The  oldest  son  went  since  to  a  profligate's  grave.  His 
mother,  from  a  broken  heart,  succeeded  him.  Refer- 
ring to  a  prominent  church,  with  which  his  family 
worshiped  when  they  attended  for  such  service,  he 
said:  "Of  what  avail  would  it  be  to  such  a  man  as  I 
am,  and  who  knows  so  much  about  the  characters  of 
the  leading  men  of  that  church,  to  be  connected  with 
them  in  church  relations,  if  I  were  a  Christian  ?  Who 

are  they?    There's ;  he  acquired  the  bulk  of  his 

property  in  whisky  and  other  speculations.      There's 

;    when  in  the    Legislature,  away  from    home 

and  concealed,  as  he  supposed,  from  observation,  I 
knew  him  to  frequently  repair  on  legislative  recesses 
to  the  saloon, — to  play  cards,  to  succeed  with  that 
which  shall  not  be  named  by  this  writer.     There's 

;   he  built  his  fine  mansion  out  of  gains  wrung 

from  one  who  lost  his  farm  in  consequence.     There's 

;  you  know  who  he  is."     Thus  he  went  through 

the  list  of  prominent  members.  Coming  to  the  min- 
ister, he  said:  "He  is  oily  and  plausible.  He  has 
been  cognizant  of  all  these  scandalous  actions  of 
these  his  church  members,  but  never  once  raised  his 
voice  in  open  or  private  rebuke  of  them."  Such  close 


296  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

aud  critical  observers,  such  merciless  dissectors  of 
conduct, — ever  setting  life  over  against  profession, 
are  frequently  met  in  society,  many  of  them  having 
come  out  of  Christian  families.  Allude  to  the  neces- 
sity that  they  must  be  born  again,  and  they  will 
break  out  into  passionate  and  violent  denunciation  of 
the  abominable  conduct  of  this  or  that  church  mem- 
ber, by  whom  they  and  others  have  been  wronged. 
They  will  end  by  declaring,  that  they  have  been  in- 
jured more  by  some  inside  of  the  churches  than  by 
others  outside  of  them ;  that  a  certificate  of  member- 
ship in  a  Christian  church  is  no  certification  of  integ- 
rity to  them;  that  they  would  sooner  trust  a  pure 
worldling  than  an  adulterated  heavenling.  Now:  all 
this  may  be  impulsively  or  deliberately,  candidly  or 
sinisterly  said  by  them.  It  is  a  fact,  however,  that 
such  declarations  come  from  some  who  are  very  hon- 
orable men ;  upright  in  their  transactions,  generous 
and  genial  in  their  intercourse,  patterns  in  external 
conduct  to  many  who  make  higher  professions. 

This  class,  indeed,  have  not  the  slightest  excuse  for 
rejecting  the  Gospel  of  the  Christ,  though  all  church 
members  were  hypocrites;  nor  will  professors  of  re- 
ligion be  excused  for  placing  skandala  in  their  w^ay. 
It  were  better  for  such,  exclaimed  Jesus,  that  a  mill- 
stone were  hung  about  their  necks  and  they  cast 
into  the  sea.  No  light  thing  it  is  to  be  a  skcmdalon 
in  the  way  of  a  soul  to  Heaven,  over  which  it  may 
tumble  into  Gehenna.  Turn  thou,  Christian  professor! 
to  Ezekiel  iii:20,  or  to  the  17th  of  Luke,  for  a  premo- 
nition of  the  woe  that  will  fall  upon  thee  in  the  next 
world,  if  thou  continuest  a  skandalon  in  this. 


THERE  MUST  BE  CHARITY.  297 

It  cannot  be  denied,  that  the  mass  of  professing 
Christians  in  all  churches  are  infirm.  They  have 
ever  been  so.  The  Apostles  were.  They  confessed 
it.  So  were  all  primitive  believers.  The  Apostolic 
epistles  to  them,  especially  to  the  Corinthians,  reveal 
great  frailty,  scandalous  practices.  God  in  the  Christ 
came  to  call  sinners,  not  the  righteous  into  His  spir- 
itual kingdom.  Sinners  are  not  transformed  at  once 
into  saints.  This  is  the  result  of  a  life.  Thou  hast  a 
right,  brother  man!  to  expect  progress, — daily  con- 
conquest  over  constitutional  infirmity,  bad  habits, 
vicious  tendency,  outward  temptation, — not  perfec- 
tion. Thou  knowest  not  what  war  may  be  in  those 
souls  against  sin.  Frailty  is  ever  more  conspicuous 
than  grace.  Eyes  are  sharper  for  the  detection  of 
the  one,  than  for  the  recognition  of  the  other.  De- 
plorable is  it,  that  the  light  is  not  often  superior  to 
the  darkness.  Pity  them,  brother  sinner!  Thou 
needest  pity  for  thyself.  Pray  for  them.  Pray  for 
thyself,  that  thou  mayest  be  a  superior,  a  riper  and  a 
more  symmetrical  Christian  than  they. 

Outward  manifestation  does  not  always  indicate 
correctly  inward  state.  The  face  may  be  placid, — joy 
frequently  may  play  upon  it,  while  there  is  storm  and 
distress  within.  The  countenances  of  others  may  in- 
dicate abandon  to  sin,  recklessness,  seeming  insen- 
sibility to  goodness,  indifference  to  the  right,  pure 
and  true,  obliteration  of  moral  distinctions,  defiance 
of  God  as  well  as  of  men, — madness  may  be  in  their 
hearts  (Ecc.  ix:3);  yet  the  poor  souls  may  not  be 
utterly  abandoned,  may  be  much  nearer  to  the  gates 
of  Heaven  than  is  supposed, — than  when  sunk  in 


298  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

apathy;  yet  it  must  be  added,  they  may  be  near  as 
possible  to  Gehenna.  The  soul,  wreck  though  it  be  of 
former  vigor,  roused  and  stimulated  by  the  grace  of 
God,  may  be  striving  to  take  upon  itself  the  complete 
panoply,  in  order  to  effectually  resist.  This  gust  of 
passion,  this  bluster  and  bravado,  this  hurly-burly  of 
depravity  may  be  the  effort  to  cover  up  from  observa- 
tion the  inward  storm.  Thus  are  souls  masked  in  the 
tragedy  of  life.  Pity  them,  brother!  They  need  thy 
sympathy.     Heaven  weeps  and  watches. 

Judge  not;  the  workings  of  his  brain 

And  of  his  heart  thou  canst  not  see; 
What  looks  to  thy  dim  ejes  a  stain, 

In  God's  pure  light  may  only  be 
A  scar  brought  from  some  well- won  field, 
Where  thou  would'st  only  faint  and  yield. 

And  judge  none  lost,  but  wait  and  see 

With  hopeful  pity,  not  disdain ; 
The  depth  of  the  abyss  may  be 

The  measure  of  the  height  of  pain 
And  love  and  glory  that  may  raise 
This  soul  to  God  in  after  days. 

O  soul!  tried  with  these  base  counterfeits,  with 
hypocrites  in  profession  and  practice,  perhaps  thou 
mayest  be  conscious  thyself  of  the  frailty  of  thy  heart. 
Suffer  plain  dealing  with  thee.  If  thou  art  honest 
thyself,  endeavoring  to  "keep  the  commandments" 
unaided,  look  to  the  Spotless  One, — turn  away  from 
the  contemplation  of  these  miserable,  unsightly  abor- 
tions of  the  "new  birth,"  these  moral  putrescences, 
these  offenses  that  smell  rank  to  Heaven,  to  feast 
thine  eyes  on  Him.  He  is  true,  though  all  men  are 
liars.  And  many  of  His  disciples,  though  some  of 
them  follow  Him  afar  off,  endeavor  to  keep  near  Him. 
True:  some  of  them  halt  and   stumble   sometimes. 


LOOK  TO  THE  SPOTLESS  ONE.  299 

But  up  they  are  hobbling  again.  Pity  them  in  their 
weakness  and  infirmity.  Perhaps  thou  art  stronger 
constitutionally  than  they;  less  beset  by  the  machin- 
ations of  the  Enemy;  hast  a  sounder  body,  less  viti- 
ated by  ancestral  or  self-corruption;  hast  a  brain  bet- 
ter poised— unmaddened  by  appetite  or  passion.  Thou 
hast,  perhaps,  an  intellect  superior,  perception  keener, 
— able  to  discriminate  more  correctly,  more  refined! y 
between  right  and  wrong;  hast  enjoyed  more  light, 
been  placed  in  circumstances  less  conducive  to  temp- 
tation. If  so,  thank  God  for  His  providence  and 
grace  which  have  made  thee  to  differ,  and  remember, 
— fail  not  to  remember,  to  whom  much  is  given,  of 
them  much  will  be  required.  Lend  thy  weaker  broth- 
er of  the  human  family  a  helping  hand;  speak  to  him 
a  cheering  word  if  he  is  a  professed  believer  and  thou 
art  not;  if  he  evince  by  the  revelation  of  act  and  mo- 
tive, that  he  is  doubtless  a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing, — 
an  angel  of  evil  clad  in  garments  of  light;  unfrock 
him  of  his  disguise,  exposing  him  in  his  true  likeness, 
"hideous  and  foul.  If  thou  art  thyself  a  defier  of  the 
prohibitions  of  the  Decalogue,  Godless  and  God- 
defiant,  how  canst  thou  raise  thy  voice  against  their 
abominations,  until  thou  first  dost  repent  of  and  re- 
form from  thine  own?  First  let  thyself  be  healed, 
and  then  canst  thou  come  with  propriety  to  clamor 
for  the  purification  of  others  and  to  wail  over  their 
short  comings, — their  sins  of  commission  and  omis- 
sion, their  positive  iniquities.  One-twelfth  of  the 
original  band  was  a  traitor,  and  one  of  the  remaining 
eleven  went  close  to  the  verge  of  perdition.  He  had 
been  a  poor  fisherman  of  Galilee, — impetuous,  im- 


300  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

pulsive,  self-willed.  Many  a  time,  doubtless,  before 
his  call,  he  had  sworn  terribly  in  his  vocation  when 
he  had  toiled  all  night  and  "  caught  nothing  " — did 
not  "succeed"  in  business;  in  an  evil  hour,  under 
the  stimulation  of  the  Adversary  who  desired  to  sift 
him  as  wheat,  the  bad  habit  returned  and  o'er- 
mastered  him.  There  be  some  traitors  in  these  days, 
— perhaps  one-twelfth  of  the  number  of  disciples, 
perhaps  more.  There  be  many  Peters  who  have  de- 
nied Christ  on  many  occasions,  and  ratified  their 
perjury  by  oaths  when  left  to  themselves,  and  the 
Devil  entered  in  and  took  possession.  Yet  they  may 
be  Christians,  and  after  their  denial  and  perjury, 
perhaps  may  have  gone  out  and  "  wept  bitterly," — 
then  returned  contrite  to  the  feet  of  the  Saving  One, 
out  of  trial  having  become  strong  and  sturdy — the 
most  efficient  of  disciples.  "  This  unworthy  hand," 
"this  unworthy  hand,"  cried  Cranmer,  as  he  held  it 
out  to  be  consumed  in  the  flames, — that  hand  which 
had  once  signed  the  recantation  of  the  faith  he  had 
professed.  Though  it  is  possible,  that  one  may 
"give  his  body  to  be  burned"  and  yet  not  be  saved; 
yet  it  is  likewise  possible,  "they  may  sit  in  the  orches- 
tra and  noblest  seats  of  Heaven,  who  have  held  up 
shaking  hands  in  the  fire."  ^ 

How  much,  preventing  God, — how  much  I  owe 

To  the  defences  Thou  hast  round  me  set! 
Example,  Custom,  Fear,  Occasion  slow, — 

These  scorned  bondsmen  were  my  parapet; 
I  dare  not  peep  over  the  parapet, 

To  guage  with  glance  the  roaring  gulf  below, — 
The  depths  of  sin  to  which  T  had  descended, 

Had  not  these  me  against  myself  defended.* 

I.     Sir  Thomas  Browne.  2.     Herbert. 


INCONSISTENT  AND  COERUPT  RELIGION.  301 

Now:  thougli  there  may  not  be  absolutely  so  much 
corruption  among  modern  religionists  under  the  Gos- 
pel, as  there  was  among  the  ancient  under  the  Law; 
still,  relatively,  with  respect  to  the  vivid  and  accumu- 
lated light  of  the  Christian  era,  is  there  not  reason  to 
fear,  there  is  as  much  ?  ^ 

The  stirring  zeal  of  missionary  portions  of  American 
churches  for  the  evangelization  of  the  heathen  abroad, 
and  the  spiritually  destitute  at  home, — becoming  more 
and  more  intense  for  the  last  half  century;  the  es- 
tablishment and  munificent  sustentation  of  eleemosy- 
nary institutions  all  over  the  land  for  the  relief  of 
the  needy  and  the  outcast;  the  organization  since 
18j^4  of  more  than  a  thousand  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations, — one-third  being  in  the  United  States, 
which  have  taken  up  as  a  specialty  the  work  of  prac- 
tical Christianity, — the  erection  of  so  many  commo- 
dious edifices  for  their  homes,  and  as  grand  centres, 
like  Parwell  Hall  in  Chicago,  from  which  issue,  day 
and  night,  myriads  of  influences  for  the  Christiani- 
zation  of  communities  near  and  far,  are  significant  in- 
dications,-— like  the  succulent  branch  and  tender  leaf 
of  the  Fig  Tree,  that  summer  is  near.    . 

But  other  facts  cannot  be  forgotten.  ^    Twenty-five 

1.  The  practice  of  the  church  of  Christ  on  earth  for  a  thousand 
years  has  been  simply  infernal.  I  know  what  I  say,  I  speak  no 
hasty  words.  I  declare  that  through  long  periods,  the  character- 
istic actions  of  the  organized  external  churches  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  have  better  befitted  the  administrations  of  devils,  than  of 
men. — H.  W.  Beecher. 

2.  Sir  John  Hawkins — the  man-stealer,  brought  a  cargo  of  human 
flesh  to  the  West  Indies  in  1564,  in  a  ship  named   Jesus^  and  at- 


302  THE   CHKIST   IN   LIFE. 

years  only  have  passed  since  several  millions  of  men, 
women  and  children,  by  Presidential  proclamation, 
emerged  theoretically  from  the  foulest  oppression 
known  in  history.  Church  members  were,  propor- 
tionably  to  their  numbers,  as  large  participants  in  it 
as  those  who  make  no  profession  of  Christianity.  For 
many  years  the  churches  North  either  sanctioned, 
connived  at  or  neglected  to  rebuke  it, — to  cry  aloud, 
as  it  ought  and  w^as  bound,  against  it.  The  con- 
sciences of  large  portions  of  the  people  were  roused 
through  the  fidelity  of  a  few;  yet  there  was  not  power 
nor  numbers  sufficient  to  induce  the  churches  or  the 
nation  to  repent  of,  and  to  abandon  it  voluntarily. 
God  in  His  providence  would  endure  it  no  longer. 
He  forced  into  conflict  issues  and  interests,  in  the 
midst  whereof  it  was  suddenly  destroyed.  This  is 
rapid,  revolutionary  progress  in  the  right  direction. 
Yet  it  cannot  be  forgotten,  that  up  to  1862,  merchan- 
dise of  men,  women  and  children,  with  its  sequent 
inherent  cruelty,  was  legalized,  was  practiced,  sanc- 
tioned, tolerated,  connived  at  or  unreproved  by  a  ma- 
jority of  the  churches  in  the  Great  Eepublic  of  the 
world,  from  its  foundation, —  even  Northern  ones, 
with  comparatively  few  exceptions,  having  failed  to 
bear  their  testimony  against  it; — that  nation  which 
professedly  became  a  refuge  for  the  oppressed  and 
outcast  of  all  other  nationalities, — the  missionary  base 

tributed  his  success  to  *'  Almighty  God,"  "  ^vho  never  suffers  His 
elect  to  perish." 

"  'John  the  Baptisf^  was  the  name  of  a  vessel  in  the  same  ex- 
pedition under  the  command  of  David  Carlet. —  Froude^s  History 
of  England. 


MANIFESTO  OF  DOCTOES  OF  DIVINITY !  303 

for  the  evangelization  of  the  heathen;  and  finally, 
that  it  was  not  brought  to  an  end  through  voluntary 
abandonment  by  the  guilty  participants,  nor  by  the 
people  of  the  North,  even  if  it  was  generally  desired, 
but  by  the  abrupt  providence  of  God.  All  this  while, 
these  bodies  of  professed  Christian  believers  were 
fervent  in  missionary  zeal  for  the  salvation  of  sinners 
at  home  and  abroad.  Kotten  as  was  Hebrew  society, 
it  tolerated  no  such  system  as  this.  The  diabolic 
spirit  has  not  been  entirely  exorcised.  The  infernal 
snake  of  oppression  and  rebellion  has  been  scotched, 
not  killed.  It  ever  and  anon  thrusts  up  its  hateful 
head. 

In  1862-3  the  Clergy  of  all  denominations  in  the 
Confederate  States  of  the  South,  through  their  repre- 
sentatives called  together  in  Richmond  for  that  pur- 
pose, issued  an  "Address  to  Christians  through- 
out THE  World,"  ^  sending  it  out  from  London.  In 
it  they  "testify  in  the  sight  of  God,  that  the  relation 
of  master  and  slave  among  us"  "is  not  incompatible 
with  our  holy  Christianity.'''  They  enter  "solemn 
protest  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  God  throughout 
the  world,  against  the  Proclamation  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States  seekhig  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves  of  the  South''  They  declare:  "Let  it  go  forth 
from  our  lips  while  ive  live;  let  it  be  recorded  of  us 
when  we  are  dead;  that  we, — ministers  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  and  members  of  His  holy  Church,  ivith 
our  hands  upon  the  Bible,"  "call  Heaven  and  earth 
to  record,  thai  in  the  name  of  Him  whose  we  ai^e  and 

I.  A  copy  of  this  astonishing  circular  is  in  the  possession  of 
the  author  of  this  volume. 


301  THE   CHRIST    IN    LIFE. 

whom  we  serve,  wepi^oiesi!''  "For  all  that  we  say, 
wc  are  willing  io  he  judged  by  succeeding  generations 
and  io  answer  in  that  day  ichen  the  secrets  of  all 
hearts  shall  be  made  known.''  They  add:  "Our 
President  {Jefferson  Davis),  some  of  our  most  influ- 
ential statesmen,  our  commanding  General  {Lee)  and 
an  unusual  })roportion  of  the  principal  Generals,  as 
well  as  scores  of  others,  are  prominent  and,  we  be- 
lieve, consistent  members  of  the  church..''  "  Thous- 
ands of  our  soldiers  are  men  of  prayer."  They  com- 
pute the  number  of  their  church  communicants  to  be 
2,050,000 — "  little  more  than  one-third  of  the  adult 
population,"  1,550,000  of  them  being  white,  colored 
about  500,000.  This  address  is  signed  by  some  twen- 
ty-five of  the  leading  D.  D.s,  College  Presidents,  The- 
ological Professors  and  Editors  of  the  Baptist 
Church;  tweniy-five  of  the  Bishops  and  D.  D.s,  Pro- 
fessors, Presidents,  Editors  of  different  branches  of 
the  Methodist  Church;  nearly  fifty  of  like  dignitaries 
in  the  Presbyterian,  United  Synod,  Associate  Re- 
formed, Cumberland  Presbyterian,  Lutheran,  Dis- 
ciples and  German  Reformed;  representing,  they  say, 
"every  accessible  section  of  the  Confederacy,  and 
nearly  every  denomination  of  Christians."  ^ 

If  it  was  possible  for  the  large  majority  of  churches 
in  these  United  States,  from  the  foundation  of  the 

I.  The  names  of  the  signers  individually,  and  their  ecclesias- 
tical positions,  all  appear  in  this  printed  circular.  Many  of  them, 
perhaps  the  largest  portion  of  them  are  now  living,  and  doubtless 
are  in  the  same  ecclesiastical  vocations.  Who  would  care  to  be 
ministered  to  spiritually  by  them,  unless  they  had  recanted  the 
above  "deliverance.'*" 


WRONG  TO  THE  INDIANS.  305 

Government  to  the  decree  of  emancipation  in  1862-3 
forced  in  order  to  save  the  life  of  the  nation,  —if  it 
was  possible  for  them  to  be  guilty  in  legal  or  social 
participation  of  such  oppression, — to  live  ecclesias- 
tically or  individually  without  solemn  and  constant 
protest  against  it;  may  it  not  be  possible,  that  there 
yet  remain  public  and  private  wrongs — not  yet  fully 
realized, — to  be  repented  of,  faithfully  testified 
against,  and  to  be  redressed? 

The  roving  aborigines  of  North  America  could  not 
justly  claim  to  be  owners  in  fact,  or  lessees  from  God 
of  more  land  of  that  continent  than  was  necessary 
for  their  subsistence.  Yet  English  colonists  at  the 
first  recognized  their  claims,  or  deemed  it  politic  to 
do  so.  The  United  States  have  been  guilty  of  bad 
faith  to  them.  Administrations  made  treaties,  in 
which  they  pledged  the  nation  to  pay  annuities,  to 
support  schools,  to  furnish  mechanical  and  agricultu- 
ral implements,  and  the  necessities  of  lifis  for  the 
surrender  of  their  claims.  But  little  of  these  appro- 
priations, deemed  equivalent  for  what  was  obtained, 
reached  these  trustful  in  a  nation's  honor.  Said  Gen- 
eral Garfield:  "I  speak  what  I  know,  when  I  say 
that  of  every  dollar  appropriated  by  Congress  for  the 
Sioux  during  the  last  ten  years,  eighty  cents  have 
been  stolen — only  twenty  cents  reaching  the  Indians." 
That  was  not  the  worst  feature  in  their  treatment. 
They  were  plied  with  whiskey;  their  wives  and  daugh- 
ters were  debauched;  they  were  bullied  and  plundered 
and  slain  on  the  slightest  provocation;  the  legitimate 
fruits  ensued, — horrible  massacres,  with  constant  ap- 
prehension of  protracted  harassing  war. 

20 


306  THE   CHKIST   IN    LIFE. 

True:  the  Government  at  a  late  hour  has  nobly 
been  endeavoring  to  make  amends  for  duties  neglect- 
ed, and  for  wrongs  inflicted,  by  the  institution  of 
Peace  Commissions.  The  effort,  as  always  is  right- 
ing of  wrong-doing,  is  successful. 

Notwithstanding  these  facts,  many,  some  professed- 
ly Christian  people  clamor  for  their  indiscriminate 
extermination  as  the  only  possible  solution  of  the 
problem:  What  shall  he  done  with  ihe  Indians? 
That  the  lawless  and  the  atrocious  should  be  ad- 
equately punished,  there  can  be  no  question.  But 
there  should  have  been  discrimination  between  the 
innocent  and  the  guilty.  The  Col.  Chivington  who 
treacherously  massacred  four  hundred  defenseless 
women  and  children,  after  having  pledged  their  pro- 
tection, was  a  Methodist  preacher.  Indian  haters 
shut  their  eyes  to  the  fact,  that  God  made  of  one 
blood  all  nations  of  the  earth, — of  which  great  family 
the  Indian  is  one; — that  they  are  men  with  the  nat- 
ural appetites,  passions  and  vices  of  white  men, — 
neither  better  nor  worse  by  nature,  to  be  commended 
and  rewarded  for  just  deeds,  and  to  be  adequately 
punished  for  crimes,  but  never  the  innocent  for  the 
guilty,  and  only  after  a  legal  trial ;  that  God  Manifest 
came  to  save  them  as  all  other  praved  men ;  that  they 
are  as  susceptible  to  righteous  treatment,  to  the  in- 
fluences of  the  Spirit  of  God,  as  are  Chinese,  Japan- 
ese, Hottentots,  or  South-Sea  Islanders;  that  the  ex- 
periment long  since  was  tried,  proving  an  eminent 
success;  that  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
in  New  England,  thousands  of  them  were  converted; 
that  there  were  churches,  schools  composed  entirely 


IMPOVERISHMENT  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MASSES.       307 

of  them,  into  whose  dialect  through  the  indefatigable 
toil  of  devoted  missionaries,  the  Bible  and  Hymn 
Books  had  been  translated.  What  the  Spirit  of  God 
then  achieved,  in  answer  to  prayer  and  in  conjunction 
with  unremitted  effort,  is  possible  even  now  as  then. 
The  same  Gospel  which  has  tamed,  revolutionized, 
disenthralled,  reconstructed,  regenerated  and  sancti- 
fied barbarians  the  most  savage,  the  cruel  and  blood- 
thirsty in  all  ages,  such  as  Karen  Ko  Thah  Byu,  or 
the  African  Africaner,  confessed  murderers  of  scores, 
is  potent  still  to  seize  hold  of  and  to  reconstruct  these 
"red  devils,"  to  transform  them  into  humble,  peace- 
able, even  lovely  disciples  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Dost  thou  doubt  it?  Then  thou  distrustest  the  broth- 
erhood of  men,  and  the  omnipotence  of  Grace.  ^ 

Christianity  was  introduced  into  England  as  early  as 
the  second  century,  and  her  people  have  been  pro- 
fessedly, ever  since,  more  or  less  under  the  regimen 
of  its  precepts.  For  three  centuries  the  Protestant 
form  of  it  has  been  dominant  in  her  State  and  Church, 
and  accepted  by  the  people  generally  as  the  rule  of 
life.     What  is  the  condition  of  her  masses  ? 

Said  the  London  Quarterly  Keview:  "In  the  sense 
Adam  Smith  uses  the  word  poor,  *  living  from  hand 
to  mouth,'  nine-tenths  of  the  English  people  are  poor. 

I.  Folks  has  said  that  there  couldn't  nothin' be  made  o'  In- 
dians, .  .  .  but  Parson  Eliot  he  didn't  think  so.  'Christ  died 
for  them  as  well  as  for  me,'  says  he;  and  "jist  give 'em  the 
Gospel,  says  he,  and  the  rest'll  come  along  of  itself."  .  .  '<  All 
them  Martha  Vineyard  islands  turned  Christians,  and  there  was 
Indian  preachers  and  Indian  teachers.  .  ,  ,  But  I  teli  you, 
boys,  it  took  faith  to  start  with. — Oldtawn  Stories. 


308  THE   CHiUST   IN    LIFE. 

.  .  .  In  the  road  which  the  English  laborer  must 
travel,  the  Poorhouse  is  the  last  stage  on  the  way  to 
the  grave.'" 

Said  Sydney  Smith:  "There  is,  no  doubt,  more 
misery  and  acute  suffering  among  the  mass  of  the 
people  of  England  than  there  is  in  any  kingdom  of 
the  world." 

Mr.  Kay,  who  was  ct)mmissioned  by  the  Senate  of 
Cambridge  University  to  systematically  and  thor- 
oughly investigate  the  social  condition  of  the  people 
of  England,  reported,  that,  "  The  poor  of  England  are 
more  depressed,  more  pauperized,  more  numerous  in 
comparison  with  the  other  classes,  more  irreligious,  and 
very  much  worse  educated  than  the  poor  of  any  other 
European  nation,  solely  excepting  Russia,  Turkey, 
South  Italy,  Portugal  and  Spain."  ^ 

It  has  been  stated,  that  the  Government,  dur- 
ing seventeen  years  ending  in  1848,  had  expended  for 
the  relief  of  pauperism  in  England  and  Wales  alone, 
$440,000,000,  exclusive  of  amounts  expended  in  the 
administration  of  the  Poor  Laws  by  the  different 
Unions,  and  those  contributed  by  societies  and  indi- 
viduals,^ yet  the  plague  is  not  stayed,  but  continues  to 
spread  with  virulence. 

As  a  wealthy  manufacturer  in  Birmingham  re- 
marked:— "  the  whole  tendency  of  British  legislation 
is  to  make  the  rich  richer,  and  the  poor  poorer."  ^ 

In  1688,  of  a  population  of  5,500,000,  170,000  were 
land  owners.  In  1861,  of  20,000.000  only  30,766  were 
such.     Nine-tenths  of  Scot  land  is  claimed  by  1700 

I.  Quoted  bj  Lester  in  "The  Glory  and  the  Shame  of  En 
gland." 


SAD  CONDITION  OF  ENGLAND'S  POOE.  309 

persons.  Lester,  after  twenty-five  years  of  investi- 
gation and  thought,  reiterates  a  remark  he  made  at 
its  commencement:  "  I  would  rather  see  the  children 
of  my  love  born  to  the  heritage  of  Southern  Slavery, 
than  to  the  doom  of  the  operative's  life  in  England." 

The  appalling  condition  of  England's  poor  is  as 
concealed  from  the  ordinary  observation  of  travelers, 
as  were  the  atrocities  of  American  slavery  in  its  time. 

What  must  become  of  such  a  Government,  of  such 
political  and  ecclesiastical  institutions, — State  and 
Church  interwoven?  of  such  nobility — so  named,  of 
such  privileged  classes  who  claim  to  own  by  inherit- 
ance the  great  bulk  of  the  land  itself, — who  hold,  by 
virtue  thereof,  most  of  the  places  of  power  and  trust? 
— of  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  of  the  Established 
Church,  the  support  of  which,  it  is  stated,  costs  the 
Government  $50,000,000  per  annum? 

Even  the  Empress  herself,  though  exemplary  in 
domestic  relations,  is  ever  gathering, — accumulating 
treasures, — heaping  up,  ever  heaping  up  upon  the 
massive  pile, — hoarding  in  her  avarice,  instead  of 
distributing  to  the  crying  necessities  of  millions  of 
her  subjects, — intending,  doubtless,  to  leave  her  ma- 
terial accumulations,  landed  estates  as  well  as  money, 
to  her  children,  the  sons  being  profligates.  What  a 
spectacle  is  this!  Who  will  not  tremble,  when  he 
considers  that  God  is  just,  and  that  He  is  espouser 
of  the  worthy  poor?     Jer.  v:  9,  I  Thess.  iv:6. 

If  Christianity  has  not  been  able  for  so  many  cen- 
turies, especially  the  last  three,  to  purify  the  Church 
as  well  as  the  State;  if  the  upper  classes,  under  the 
professed  recognition  of  Christianity  as  the  rule  of 


310  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

their  lives,  are  richer  and  more  powerful,  while  the 
lower  have  become  poorer,  more  depressed  and  ab- 
ject; can  there  be  surprise,  that  the  confidence  of 
very  many  thoughtful  ones,— having  hitherto  re- 
garded Christianity  as  the  forlorn  hope  of  rescuing 
humanity  from  its  natural  gravitation  downward, — 
all  other  previous  and  present  religious  systems  hav- 
ing failed  to  stay  it, — wavers  whether  it  is  adequate 
for  the  supreme  task,  and  awaits  some  new  dispensa- 
tion fi'om  the  Almighty  for  the  rescue,  or  the  alterna- 
tive violence  and  anarchy  that  must,  sooner  or  later, 
ensue  ? 

"How  long,  O  Lord!"  Thou  alone  canst  transform, 
reconstruct  and  save !  Thou  canst  do  it  in  a  day  or 
an  hour!  The  question  is,  whether  Thou  wilt  con- 
summate it  through  the  tardy  process  of  gradual 
reform,  or  by  the  sudden  quake  of  revolution, — the 
upheaval  of  society,  the  disintegration  of  all  govern- 
ments and  political  institutions  that  disregard  the 
cries  of  the  poor  and  the  oppressed. 

Do  the  shadows  of  political  or  social  avengers  stalk 
before?    Of  what — premonitory,  is  this  rumbling? 

What  is  this,  the  sound  and  rumor?     What  is  this  that  all  men 

hear, 
Like  the  wind  in  hollow  valleys  when  the  storm  is  drawing  near, 
Like  the  rolling  on  of  ocean  in  the  eventide  of  fear? 
'Tis  the  people  marching  on. 

Many   hundred  years   passed  over,  have  they  labored  deaf  and 

blind; 
Never  tidings  reached  their  sorrow,  never  hope  their  toil  might 

find; 
Now,  at  last,  they've  heard  and  hear  it,  and  their  cry  comes  down 

the  wind ; 

And  their  feet  are  marching  on !  i 

I.     William  Morris, 


ILLUSTRATIVE  AND  SUGGESTIVE. 


Next  to  the  originator  of  a  good  sentence  is  the  first  quoter  of  it. — Emerson. 


On  those  roads  whose  capital  stock  has  been  watered  by  the  is- 
sue of  additional  stock  and  scrip  dividends,  everything  is  made 
subservient  to  the  one  necessity  of  securing  sufficient  net  earnings 
to  pay  the  promised  per  cent,  on  these  illegal  issues.  Not  only 
are  the  charges  of  transportation  advanced ;  but  the  expenses  of 
the  road  are  curtailed.  First  class  men,  unwilling  to  give  their 
service  at  less  than  their  fair  market  value,  are  replaced  by  ignor- 
ant and  inferior  who  contract  to  do  double  duty  for  half  wages. 
A  brakeman  is  discharged  here,  and  a  flagman  there;  passenger- 
trains  are  permitted  to  make  up  lost  time  by  running  at  full  speed 
over  drawbridges. — Rtifus  Hatch. 

How  the  Moth-kings  lay  up  treasures  for  the  moth,  and  the 
Rust-kings,  w^ho  are  to  their  peoples'  strength  as  rust  to  armor, 
lay  up  treasures  for  the  rust ;  and  the  Robber-kings, — treasures  for 
the  robber ;  but  how  few  kings  have  ever  laid  up  treasures  that 
needed  no  guarding, — treasures,  of  which,  the  more  thieves  there 
were,  the  better.  .  .  .  who  has  also  devoted  the  powers  of  his 
soul  and  body,  and  wealth,  and  place  to  the  spoiling  of  homes, 
the  corruption  of  the  innocent,  and  the  oppression  of  the  poor; 
and  has,  at  this  actual  moment  of  his  prosperous  life,  as  many 
curses  waiting  round  about  him  in  calm  shadow,  with  their  death's 
eyes  fixed  upon  him,  biding  their  time,  as  ever  the  poor  cob-horse 
had  launched  at  him  in  meaningless  blasphemies,  when  his  fail- 
ing feet  stumbled  at  the  stones,  .  .  .  the  idea  that  everything 
should  "  pay  "  has  infected  our  every  purpose  so  deeply,  that  even 
when  we  would  play  the  good  Samaritan,  we  never  take  out  our 
two-pence  and  give  them  to  the  host,  without  saying,  "  When  I 
come  again,  thou  shalt  give  me  four-pence."     .     .     . 

(311) 


312  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

Why  is  one  man  richer  than  another?  Because  he  is  more  in- 
ilustrious,  more  persevering,  and  more  sagacious?  Well,  who 
made  him  more  persevering,  and  more  sagacious?  That  power 
of  endurance,  (hat  quickness  of  apprehension,  that  calmness  of 
judgment,  which  enable  hi;n  to  seize  the  opportunities  which  oth- 
ers lose,  and  jicrsist  in  the  lines  of  conduct  in  which  others  fail — 
are  these  not  talent? — are  they  not  in  the  present  state  of  the 
world,  among  the  most  distinguished  and  influential  of  mental 
gifts? — Puskin. 

There  is  Wall  Street  thundering  on,  and  there  are  men  there 
who  are  going  through  all  these  courses ;  and  is  there  nothing  that 
shall  speak  of  it?  O  thou  stone-front  and  high-lifted  steeple 
carrying  on  it  the  Cross!  O  Trinity  look  down  on  the  street.  Is 
there  no  word  that  shall  come  from  this  cold  and  heartless  stone? 
Shall  men,  looking  up  at  thy  majestic  beauty,  think  nothing  of 
God,  and  nothing  of  holiness,  and  nothing  of  Him  that  hung 
upon  that  gilded  cross  ? 

A  man  whose  opportunites,  whose  education,  whose  providen- 
tial mercies  have  lifted  him  into  strength  and  amplitude  of  means, 
and  who  employs  the  regality  of  God's  bounty — his  own  reason, 
his  own  executive  skill,  his  own  genius  and  accomplishments,  all 
his  means  and  treasures — only  to  wrap  himself  round  and  round 
with  the  silken,  soft  web  of  selfishness — if  he  is  not  damnable, 
none  is. — H.  W.  Beechcr. 

Selfishness  is  the  law,  and  success  the  Gospel  of  the  millions 
whose  noise  fills  the  day  here,  as  it  were  with  the  groan  of  an 
earth-demon.  Nobody  cares,  nobody  hears,  if  any  voice  is  raised 
but  the  voice  of  the  market,  and  the  song  of  pleasure. — Cor.  Chi- 
cago Tribune  in  New  Tork  City. 

Let  a  man  attempt  to  carry  into  business  fellowship  the  princi- 
ple of  exact  and  unwavering  honesty;  to  go  by  that  against  all 
bribes  of  gain  and  advantages  to  buy  and  sell ;  to  manufacture;  to 
offer  and  accept  and  fulfill  contracts ;  to  make  every  advertisement 
tell  the  exact  truth,  and  every  label  a  true  rescript  of  the  goods  it 
covers—  hoAv  far  would  he  go  without  finding  that  he  was  out  of 
place,  and  by  anticipation  out  of  date?  Who  would  be  his  part- 
ner? Mould  hire  him  as  a  traveling  agent?  would  bid  for  him  as  a 
chief  salesman  on  the  floor  of  the  ware-room.'' — A.  L.  Stone.  D.D. 


THE  ANTI-CHRIST  IN  SELF.  313 

Men  in  different  occupations  and  in  different  places^ — men  nat- 
urally conscientious,  who  manifestly  chafed  under  the  degrada- 
tions they  have  submitted  to,  have  one  and  all  expressed  to  me 
the  sad  belief,  that  it  is  impossible  to  carry  on  trade  with  strict 
rectitude.  Their  concurrent  opinion,  independently  given  by 
each,  is,  that  the  scrupulously  honest  man  must  go  to  the  wall. 

The  uniform  testimony  of  competent  judges  is,  that  success  is 
incompatible  with  strict  integrity.  To  live  in  the  commercial 
world,  it  appears  necessary  to  adopt  its  ethical  code ;  neither  ex- 
ceeding nor  falling  short  of  it — neither  being  less  honest  or  more 
honest.  Those  who  sink  below  its  standard  are  expelled;  while 
those  who  rise  above  it  are  either  pulled  down  to  it  or  ruined.  As 
in  self  defence,  the  civilized  man  becomes  savage  among  savages ; 
so  it  seems,  that  in  self  defence,  the  scrupulous  trader  is  obliged 
to  become  as  little  scrupulous  as  his  competitor.  It  has  been  said, 
that  the  law  of  the  animal  creation  is — "  Eat  and  be  eaten,"  and, 
of  our  trading  community,  it  may  be  similarly  said  that  its  law  is 
— cheat  and  be  cheated.  A  system  of  keen  competition,  carried 
on  as  it  is,  without  adequate  moral  restraints,  is  very  much  a  sys- 
tem of  commercial  cannibalism.  Its  alternatives  are — use  the 
same  weapons  as  your  antagonists,  or  be  conquered  and  devoured. 

There  is  no  good  reason  for  assuming  that  the  trading  classses 
are  intrinsically  worse  than  other  classes. 

Consider  well  the  endowments  of  laborers, — their  capacities,  af- 
fections, tastes,  and  the  vague  yearnings  to  which  they  give  birth. 
Think  of  him  now  with  his  caged- up  desires  doomed  to  a  daily, 
weekly,  yearly  round  of  painful  toil,  with  scarcely  any  remission 
but  for  food  and  sleep.  Observe  how  he  is  tantalized  by  the 
pleasures  he  sees  his  richer  brethren  partaking  of,  but  from  which 
he  must  be  forever  debarred.  .  .  .  Remember  that  he  has 
nothing  to  look  forward  to  but  a  monotonous  continuance  of  this 
till  death.     .     .     . 

We  cannot  understand  another's  character  except  by  abandon- 
ing our  own  identity,  and  realizing  to  ourselves  his  frame  of 
mind,  his  want  of  knowledge,  his  hardships,  temptations,  and  dis- 
couragements— Herbert  Spencer. 

.  .  .  You  would  be  indignant  if  you  saw  a  stranger  walk 
into  a  theatre  or  a  lecture  room,  and  calmly  choosing  the  best 


314  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

place,  take  his  feeble  neighbor  by  the  shoulder,  and  turn  him  out 
of  it  into  the  back  seats,  or  the  street.  You  would  be  equally  in- 
dignant if  you  saw  a  stout  fellow  thrust  himself  up  to  a  table 
where  some  hungry  children  were  being  fed,  and  reach  his  arm 
over  their  heads  and  take  their  bread  from  them.  But  you  are 
not  the  least  indignant,  if  when  a  man  has  stoutness  of  thought 
and  swiftness  of  capacity,  and  instead  of  being  long-armed  only, 
has  the  much  greater  gift  of  being  long-headed — you  think  it  per- 
fectly just  that  he  should  use  his  intellect  to  take  the  bread  out  of 
the  mouths  of  all  the  other  men  in  the  town  who  are  of  the  same 
trade  with  him;  or  use  his  breadth  and  sweep  of  sight  to  gather 
some  branch  of  the  commerce  of  the  country  into  07ie  great  cob- 
iveby  of  'which  he  is  himself  to  be  the  central  spider^  making  every 
thread  vibrate  ivith  the  points  of  his  claivs,and  commanding  every 
avenue  vjith  the  facets  of  his  eyes. — Ruskin. — The  Spirit  of  Trade. 

His  talk  is  fine,  and  his  theories  do  him  honor;  but  when  he 
comes  to  act  as  a  man,  when  he  comes  to  exhibit  what  he  is  as 
well  as  what  he  thinks,  it  is  too  commonly  found,  that  four 
months  of  the  rule  of  so-called  philosophers  and  philanthropists 
are  enough  to  make  common  men  sigh  for  their  old  Bourbons  and 
Bonapartes.  Robespierre,  anarchist  and  philanthropist,  Frederick  of 
Prussia,  despot  and  philosopher,  were  both  bitter  and  vitriolic  na- 
tures, yet  both  in  their  youth  exceeded  Exeter  Hall  in  their  pro- 
fessions of  universal  beneficence,  and  evinced  in  their  rants,  not 
hypocrisy,  but  self-delusion.  Frederick,  indeed,  wrote  early  in 
life  a  treatise  called  "  The  Anti-Machiavel,  which  was,"  says  his 
biographer,  "  an  edifying  homily  against  almost  everything  for 
which  its  author  is  now  remembered  among  men. —  Whipple. 

Perhaps  he  has  a  favorite  or  an  only  son,  for  whom  he  destines, 
with  the  rest  of  his  treasure,  that  portion  which  God  was  de- 
manding. .  .  .  Suppose,  that  this  son  is  a  man  of  sensibility 
and  deep  reflection.  Then,  his  property  will  often  remind  him  of 
his  departed  father.  And  with  what  emotions.?  This,  he  will  say 
to  himself,  was  m\  father's  god.  He  did,  indeed,  think  much  of 
me,  and  of  securing  for  me  an  advantageous  condition  in  life,  and 
I  am  not  ungrateful  for  his  care.  He  professed  also  not  to  be  un- 
concerned for  the  interests  of  his  own  soul,  and  the  cause  of  the 
Savior  of  the  world.     But  alas!  it  presses  on  me  with  irresistible 


THE  ANTI-CHKIST  IN  SELF.  315 

evidence,  that  the  love  of  money  had  a  power  in  his  heart  pre- 
dominant over  all  other  interests.  .  .  .  Whither  can  a  soul  be 
gone  that  had  such  a  religion?  Would  he  that  acquired,  and 
guarded  even  against  the  demands  of  God,  these  possessions  for 
me,  and  who  is  thinking  of  them  noAv  as  certainly  as  I  am  think 
ing  of  them,  oh!  would  he,  if  he  could  speak  to  me  while  I  am 
pleasing  myself  that  they  are  mine,  tell  me  that  they  are  the  price 
of  my  father's  soul? — John  Foster. 

He  may  prepare  a  plan  of  his  life  at  thirty,  on  the  theory 
that  this  world,  with  all  its  treasures,  is  a  sort  of  big  sweet  orange 
he  can  suck  with  endless  gusto,  and  then  give  Lazarus  the  skin.     . 

Or  he  will  make  ready  for  the  life  to  come,  by  saying  prayers, 
going  through  motions,  making  professions,  shirking  responsibil- 
ities, and  worrying  down  doubts,  and  pampering  a  minister.  .  . 
— Robert  Collyer. 

The  track  of  his  life  was  strewn  with  crushed  and  cast-off  loves, 
like  orange-peels  thrown  away  after  he  had  sucked  out  all  the 
sweetness.  Great  and  lustrous  like  an  iceberg,  floating  deep  and 
towering  high,  moving  majestic  with  the  strength  and  swell  of 
the  ocean,  effulgent  in  the  sunshine,  a  mountain  of  light,  but  also 
a  mountain  of  ice. — Goethe. — SamH  Harris^  D.  D. 

His  great  success  in  life  was  as  a  political  manager.  He  was  a 
man  who  always  worked  in  the  dark,  and  who  was  full  of  secrets, 
— taking  one  into  a  corner  and  whispering  to  him,  as  if  he  were 
his  dearest  friend,  what  he  does  not  wish  the  world  to  hear.  He 
does  everything  by  indirection.  If  there  are  two  ways  to  do  a 
thing, — one  a  frank  and  manly  way,  and  the  other  a  sly  and 
stealthy  way, —  he  will  choose  the  latter. — C.  W.  Field  on  a 
Politician. 

They  were  Old  Testament  men,  and  Old  Testament  men  be- 
lieved in  stones.  They  would,  in  a  moment,  answer  an  idea  with 
a  stone,  and  cleave  down  erratic  thinkers  with  the  edge  of  the 
sword. — Ecce  Deus. 

Not  worse  than  men  commonly  are — rather  the  contrary ;  men 
who  professed  in  a  full,  or  somewhat  more  than  a  full  measure, 
the  religious,  moral  and  patriotic  feelings  of  their  religious  time 
and  people:   the  very  kind  of  men  who,  in  all  times,  our  own  in- 


316  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

eluded,  have  every  chance  of  passing  through  life  blameless  and 
respected, — Mill. — Liberty. 

By  the  fault  of  its  representatives,  the  very  religion  which  had 
taught  the  world  the  ideas  of  humanity  and  right,  came  to  be  re- 
garded by  liberal  spirits  as  the  very  foe  which  they  must  first  con- 
quer in  their  work  of  vindicating  principles  which  itself  had  first 
proclaimed. — Religion  and  the  Reign  of  Terror. — Pressense. 

When  a  human  being  ...  is  made  a  new  creature  in 
Christ  Jesus,  he  does  not  get  rid  of  his  old  natural  disposition  and 
temperament,  nor  of  the  training  of  all  his  life  hitherto:  .  .  . 
still  more,  those  special  bents  and  peculiarities  of  thinking,  feeling 
and  liking  which  make  the  man's  idiosyncracy,  his  special  tem- 
per and  disposition, — remain  in  him  in  a  very  great  degree. — 
ThougJits  of  a  Country  Parson. 

How  can  we  know  what  humility  and  love  there  are  in  the 
hearts  of  those  you  call  Pharisees;  how  they  weep  in  secret  over 
the  infirmities  you  despise ;  how  much  they  have  to  overcome; 
how,  perhaps,  the  severity  you  dislike  is  only  the  irritation  of  a 
heart  struggling  with  its  own  temptations,  and  not  quite  succeed- 
ing.'*— Diary  of  Kitty  Trevylyan. 

They  wanted  to  stereotype  the  form  of  religion.  .  .  .  Souls 
that  had  shrunk  away  from  all  goodness  and  nobleness,  and  with- 
ered into  the  mummy  of  a  soul.  They  could  jangle  about  the  breadth 
of  a  phylactery.  They  could  discuss,  as  if  it  were  a  matter  of  life 
and  death,  ecclesiastical  questions  about  tithes.  They  could  de- 
cide, to  a  furlong,  the  length  of  journey  allowable  on  the  Sabbath 
day.  But  they  could  not  look  with  mercy  upon  a  broken  heart, 
pouring  itself  out  to  God  in  His  temple;  nor  suffer  a  hungry  man 
to  rub  an  ear  of  corn  on  the  Sabbath ;  nor  cover  the  shame  of  a 
tempted  sister  or  an  erring  brother. — Men  without  souls,  from 
whose  narrow  hearts  the  grandeur  of  everlasting  truth  was  shut 
out. 

The  Scribe  was  a  man  who  turned  religion  into  etiquette. 

The  reaction  from  superstition  is  infidelity.  The  reaction  from 
ultra-strictness  is  laxity.  The  reaction  from  Pharisaism  was  the 
Sadducee.  And  the  Sadducee,  with  a  dreadful  daring,  had  had 
the  firmness  to  say:  *'  Well,  then,  there  is  no  life  to  come.  That 
is  settled.     I  have  looked  into  the  abyss  without  trembling.  There 


THE  ANTI-CHTvIST  IN  SELF.  317 

is  no  phantom  there.  There  is  neither  angel,  spirit  nor  life  to 
come.  And  this  glorious  thing,  man,  with  his  deep  thoughts  and 
his  great,  unsatisfied  heart,  his  sorrows  and  his  loves,  God-like 
and  immortal  as  he  seems,  is  but  dust  animated  for  a  time,  passing 
into  the  nothingness  out  of  which  he  came."  That  cold  and 
hopeless  creed  was  the  creed  of  Sadduceeism. — F.  W.  Robertson. 

Among  the  Pharisees  were  some  of  the  noblest  men, — were  the 
Puritans  of  the  Jews  in  contrast  with  the  heathen, — shone  like 
stars  in  the  firmament.  .  .  .  Relatively  to  other  men,  they 
were  superiors ;  to  Christ,  were  low  and  even  despicable ; — chief 
sins  were  selfishness,  bigotry  and  narrowness  in  religious  duties 
and  views;  o  .  .  had  no  true  pity  and  humanity  in  their  reli- 
gion; had  worshiping  qualities,  sentimentality,  but  no  humane 
ethical  emotions ;  .  .  .  confounded  religion  itself  with  the  in- 
struments or  institutions.  .  .  .  They  said:  "There  is  a  man 
of  great  power,  and  we  must  see  whether  we  can  bring  him  to  our 
side  and  use  him."  .  .  .  "If  this  man  is  with  us,  we  are  for 
him;  if  not,  we  are  against  him."     .  ,     The  president  of  a 

Theological  seminary  says:  "This  seminary  was  endowed  for 
the  purpose  of  preaching  the  true  doctrine.  Whoever  opposes 
this  seminary  opposes  the  true  doctrine."  The  president  of  a 
Tract  society  says ;  "  This  society  is  to  diffuse  a  pure  Gospel ; 
and  anything  that  breaks  up  this  society  is  an  obstacle  in  the  way 
of  the  diffusion  of  a  pure  Gospel.  .  .  .  Men  say :  "  The 
church  is  the  grand  pillar  of  religion;  and  if  you  destroy  the 
church,  religion  will  be  destroyed.  .  .  .  Now  churches,  and 
seminaries,  and  Christian  institutions  of  all  kinds  are  only  feet 
with  which  religion  walks. 

A  man  may  be  so  strict  that  he  shall  keep  Sabbath  day  like  a 
Pharisee  and  a  Puritan ;  may  pray  so  that  there  shall  not  be  an 
unperfumed  hour  through  the  day  ;  a  man  may  keep  angels  busy 
carrying  up  his  prayers ;  a  man  may  be  so  zealous  and  so  active 
that  there  shall  not  be  a  neglected  street  that  his  enterprise  shall 
not  rake  and  search ;  and  yet  he  may  not  be  a  growing  Christian. 
—H.  W.  Beecher. 

They  compass  sea  and  land,  not  to  make  followers  of  Christ, 
but  followers  of  their  sect.  They  overlook  tlie  heart,  that  they 
may  rectify  the  head ;  and  make  ChriaLianity,  not  a  vital,  inward, 


318  THE   CHRIST   IN    LIFE. 

efficient  principle,  expressed  in  increasing  conformity  to  Jesus 
Christ,  but  a  dry,  cold,  barren  system  of  modes  and  speculations. 
.  .  .  There  is  also  a  zeal  which  is  the  base-born  progeny  of 
pride  and  ambition.  It  is  ever  busy  and  active,  for  it  loves  to  be 
seen  and  heard,  and  to  acquire  influence  in  the  church.  It  is 
greedy  of  services  which  draw  attention,  and  seeks  to  heighten  it- 
self by  casting  severe  reflections  on  the  lukewarmness  of  others. 
—  W.  E.  Channing. 

Ecclesiastical  ambition  is  the  most  devilish  of  all,  for  it  perverts 
a  more  interior  and  more  sacred  principle  than  any  other,  appears 
always  in  sanctimonious  guises,  and  secretes  a  more  specious  and 
deadly  poison. —  The  Heart  of  Christ. — Scars. 

Sympathetic  characters,  left  uncultivated  and  given  up  to  their 
sympathetic  instincts,  are  as  selfish  as  others.  The  difference  is 
in  the  hind  of  selfishness:  theirs  is  not  solitary,  but  sympathetic 
selfishness :  Vegoisme  a  deux.,  a  trois.,  or  a  qttatre;  and  they  may  be 
very  amiable  and  delightful  to  those  with  whom  they  sympathize, 
and  grossly  unjust  and  unfeeling  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  Indeed, 
the  finer  nervous  organizations,  which  are  most  capable  of  and 
most  require  sympathy,  have  from  their  fineness  so  much  stronger 
impulses  of  all  sorts,  that  they  often  furnish  the  most  striking  ex- 
amples of  selfishness,  though  of  a  less  repulsive  kind,  than  that  of 
colder  natures. — Mill. — Nature. 

So  through  all  phases  of  existence,  to  the  smallest  details  of 
common  life,  the  beautiful  character  is  the  unselfish  character.  . 
.  .  The  essence  of  true  nobility  is  neglect  of  self.  Let  the 
thought  of  self  pass  in,  and  the  beauty  of  a  great  action  is  gone, 
like  the  bloom  from  a  soiled  flower. — Froude. — Science  of  History. 

There  is  many  a  Godless  man  this  day,  who  is  encouraging 
himself  in  the  way  to  ruin  and  perdition,  by  thinking  of  some 
foolish  or  sinful  word  or  deed  of  a  professing  Christian.— 77/<?a;^///5 
of  a  Country  Parson. 

The  hireling  preaches  because  he  is  paid  for  it;  but  he  practices 
not.  And  were  his  stipend  withdrawn,  how  quickly  would  he 
withdraw  himself  from  the  pulpit  which  groans  under  his  heart- 
less exhibitions!  In  that  pulpit  he  assumes  a  ministerial  air,  and 
his  face  is  clothed  with  solemnity  befitting  the  occasion.  He  will 
also  insist  on  the  externals  of  the  sect  to  which  he  happens  to  be- 


THE  ANTI-CHRIST  IN  SELF.  319 

long.  .  .  .  He  is  ambitious,  avaricious  and  passionate.  He  is 
a  stickler  for  the  respect  due  to  his  rank.  He  indulges  in  the 
same  kind  of  recreations  and  amvisements  as  others.  .  .  He  is  a 
hireling  minister ;  he  cares  not  for  the  sheep ;  his  only  care  is  for  the 
fleece;  and  dying  thus  impenitent,  unabsolved,  he  must  sink  be- 
yond redemption. — Dr.  A.  Judson  on  the  Ordination  of  Osgood  i}i 
Burmah. 

His  face  was  a  part  of  his  stock  in  trade,  and  he  understood  the 
management  of  it  remarkably  well.  He  knew  precisely  all  the 
gradations  of  smile  which  were  useful  for  accomplishing  different 
purposes.  The  solemn  smile,  the  smile  of  inquiry,  the  smile  af- 
firmative, the  smile  suggestive,  the  smile  of  incredulity,  and  the 
smile  of  innocent  credulity,  which  encouraged  the  simple-hearted 
narrator  to  go  on  unfolding  himself  to  the  brother,  who  sat  quietly 
behind  his  face,  as  a  spider  does  behind  his  web,  waiting  till  his 
unsuspecting  friend  had  tangled  himself  in  incautious,  impulsive, 
and  of  course  contradictory  meshes  of  statement,  which  were,  in 
some  future  hour,  in  the  most  gentle  and  Christian  spirit,  to  be 
tightened  around  the  incautious  captive,  while  as  much  blood  was 
sucked  as  the  good  of  the  cause  demanded. — Dr.  Packthread  in 
Nina  Gordon. — Mrs.  Statue. 

The  cost  of  the  various  Indian  wars  of  the  past  forty  years  was: 
Black  Hawk  war,  400  lives  and  $5,000,000;  Seminole  war,  7,500 
lives  and  $100,000,000,  only  1,500  of  the  Indians  being  warriors; 
with  the  Creeks  and  Cherokees,  $1,000,000;  the  Sioux  war  of 
1862,  300  lives  and  $40,000,000;  the  Cheyenne  war,  in  1867,  300 
lives  and  $12,000,000;  the  Indian  troubles  on  the  Pacific  slope  for 
the  last  twenty  years,  $300,000,000;  against  the  Navajoes,  $30,- 
000,000 ;  the  whole  troubles  in  New  Mexico,  of  which  the  last 
item  forms  part,  $  1 50,000,000. 

Neither  an  individual  nor  a  nation  can  ever  commit  the  least 
act  of  injustice  against  the  obscurest  individual  without  having  to 
pay  the  penalty  for  it. —  Thoreau. 

-  Still  insensitive  to  the  last  appeal  of  their  greatest  living 
statesman.  "For  England  it  is  a  question  of  shame  and  dishonor, 
and  to  cast  away  shame  and  dishonor  is  the  first  business  of  a 
great  nation." — Gladstone'' s  Manifesto  against  Coercion  of  Jrela)id, 
Ajpril  9,  '87. 


The  Savior's  discourses  were  all  directed  to  the  iiidi\itliial. 
Christ  and  his  Apostles  sought  to  impress  upon  every  man  the 
conviction  that  he  must  stand  or  fall  alone; — he  must  live  for 
himself,  and  die  for  himself,  and  give  up  his  account  to  the  om- 
niscient God  as  though  he  were  the  only  dependent  creature  in 
the  Universe.  The  Gospel  leaves  the  individual  sinner  alone  with 
himself  and  his  God.  .  .  .  He  has  nothing  to  hope  from  the 
aid  and  sympathy  of  associates. — Diuiicl  Webster. 

Christ  took  the  individual  Israelite  by  himself  apart,  made  him 
listen  for  the  voice  of  his  conscience,  and  said  to  him,  in  effect, 
"If  every  (?;/c  would  mend  t?;/^,  we  should  have  a  new  world." — 
Literature  and  Dogma. — Arriold. 

All  virtue  lies  in  individual  action,  in  inward  energy,  in  self- 
determination.  There  is  no  moral  worth  in  being  swept  away  in 
a  crowd,  even  towards  the  best  objects. 

One  of  the  strongest  features  of  our  times  is  the  tendency  of 
men  to  run  into  associations,  to  lose  themselves  in  masses,  to 
think  and  act  in  crowds,  to  act  from  the  excitement  of  numbers, 
to  sacrifice  individuality,  to  identify  themselves  Avith  parties  and 
sects. 

The  writings  which  have  quickened,  electrified,  regenerated  the 
human  mind,  did  not  spring  from  associations.  .  .  .  Associa- 
tions are  chiefly  useful  by  giving  means  and  opportunities  to 
gifted  individuals  to  act  out  their  own  minds.  A  missionary  so- 
ciety achieves  little  good,  except  when  it  can  send  forth  an  indi- 
vidual who  wants  no  teaching  or  training  from  the  society,  but 
who  carries  his  commission  and  chief  power  in  his  own  soul. — 
Dr.  Channing. 

Every  organization  is  the  representation  of  an  idea;  .  .  . 
never  or  rarely  has  been  faithful  in  its  application. —  Wendell 
Phillips. 

The  object  "  toward  which  every  human  being  must  ceaselessly 
direct  his  efforts,  and  on  which  especially  those  who  design  to  in- 
fluence their  fellow  men  must  ever  keep  their  eyes,  is  the  individ- 
uality of  power  and  development." — Humboldt.  Rioted  in  Mill 
071  Liberty, 


(330) 


OHAPTEE  VI. 


THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  THE  SOCIETY/ 

And  He  called  to  Him  the  twelve  and  began  to  send  them  forth 
by  twos. — Mark  vi:  7. 

Asa  traveler  about  to  leave  his  home,  committing  authority  to 
his  servants, — giving  to  each  one  his  work,  commands  the  porter 
to  watch. — Mark  xiii:  34. 

He  gave  ...  to  each  one  according  to  his  individual  abil- 
ity. .  .  .  Be  occupied  in  business  till  I  come. — Matth.  xxv:i^^ 
Luke  xtx.'ij. 

And  Jesus  having  come  spoke  to  them,  saying:  All  power  in 
heaven  and  on  earth  was  given  to  Me.  Going  therefore,  disciple  all 
the  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things 
whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you.  And  behold,  I  am  with  you 
alway,  unto  the  end  of  the  world. — Matth.  xxviii:i8-20. 

And  Paul,  having  selected  Silas,  departed,  having  been  com- 
mitted to  the  grace  of  God  by  the  brethren. — Acts  xv:  40. 

Jesus  failed  not  to  avail  Himself  of  opportunities 
to  impress  masses  of  men  in  large  cities,  or  on  thor- 
ough-fares, as  they  thronged  about  Him;  but  His 
primary  and  direct  aim  was  to  reach  individuals  in 
personal  contact.  His  pithiest,  weightiest,  most  im- 
pressive utterances  were  elicited  in  such  interviews. 
His  followers,   therefore,   should   seek  not  only    to 

I.     The  substance  of  this  chapter  was  published  in  pamphlet 
form  just  before  the  Great  Fire  in  Chicago  October,  1871.     Most 
of  the  edition  was  consumed  in  that  fire. 
21  (321) 


322  THE  CUllIST  IN   LIFE. 

reach  the  minds,  the  consciences,  the  hearts  of  as- 
semblies on  Seventh-day,  and  other  special  occasions, 
but  to  touch  felicitously,  Christianly,  individual  souls 
every  day. 

True:  men  exist,  and  must  act  in  society  for  many 
common  interests  and  ends.  The  common  weal  and 
the  individual  interest  are,  respectively,  the  centrip- 
etal and  the  centrifugal  forces  of  the  social  system. 
The  first  duty  of  the  individual  is  to  God  and  self, 
then  to  others.  But  certain  material,  political,  social 
and  spiritual  ends  cannot,  or  as  well  be  wrought  by 
individuals  working  singly,  as  in  union  with  others. 
In  such  cases,  associated  work  will  be  more  efficient 
and  economic.  Hence,  the  political  and  Christian 
uses  of  nations,  states,  parties,  communities  and  soci- 
eties. History  evidences,  that  men  commonly  and 
disastrously  abdicate  their  individual  personal  sov- 
ereignty,— rarely  assert  and  maintain  it,  becoming 
the  supple  and  the  servile  instruments  of  others, 
pliantly  suffering  it  to  be  merged, — apparently  lost  in 
the  combined  sentiment  and  action.  Individual  re- 
sponsibility cannot  be  lost  in  such  social  amalgamation 
of  creed  and  conduct.  Each  one  must  answer  for 
one's  self.  To  each  one  is  a  talent.  To  each  one  is 
its  accountable  use.  Nations,  communities  answer 
for  themselves  at  the  bar  of  human  history; — the  in- 
dividuals of  them, — directly  to  their  Maker. 

Jesus  commissioned  His  disciples  to  evangelize 
the  world.  Whether  they,  who  at  the  first  were  thus 
impressively  addressed  and  solemnly  charged,  were 
an  ecclesiastical  organization,  through  which,  succes- 
sors— single  churches  to  the  end  of  time  would  come 


THE  COMMISSION  GIVEN  TO  DISCIPLES.  323 

to  be  like  commissioned;  or,  whether  they  were  an 
unorganized  company  of  believers,  cannot  be  de- 
termined from  the  sacred  record.  The  specification 
by  Jesus  of  the  ixxXrima, — church,  assembly,  company, 
— in  the  eighteenth  of  Matthew,  as  the  last  resort,  the 
ultimate  tribunal  for  investigation  and  adjustment, 
when  alienation  and  difficulty  had  arisen  between 
brethren,  and  the  use  of  the  same  term  in  the  declar- 
ation to  Peter,  Matthew  xvi.,  seem  to  recognize  the 
prior  existence  of  such  organization.  Others  think, 
that  such  technical  ecclesia  was  not  known  until  after 
the  Ascension:  that  the  directions  given  were  merely 
such  general  prescriptions  as  the  Great  Teacher 
might  naturally  give  for  the  regulation  of  the  per- 
sonal intercourse  of  His  disciples  with  each  other, — 
having  made  Love  the  test  of  discipleship  and  the 
basis  of  all  His  requirements:  that  the  term  ecclesia 
was  not  employed  by  Him  in  the  sense  to  which  it 
came  subsequently  to  be  restricted  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, but  in  its  ordinary  acceptation  of  an  affiliating 
company — assembly;  that  these  organized  bodies  grew 
out  of  the  social  and  the  elective  tendencies,  the  spiritual 
necessities  of  renewed  natures,  rather  than  from  oral 
or  written  prescription:  that  in  every  community 
where  the  Word  of  Jesus  prevailed  and  converts  were 
made.  His  disciples  would,  thus  prompted,  naturally 
come  together  to  sing  His  praises,  to  supplicate  His 
divine  direction,  and  as  a  perpetual  reminder,  to  cel- 
ebrate as  He  enjoined  the  Memorial  Supper:  that  the 
inspired  apostles  found  it  necessary,  for  the  sake  of 
order  and  purity,  to  prescribe  rules  for  the  constitution 
and  regimen  of  these  bodies  of  believers. 


324  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

It  is  questionable,  whether  churches  as  now  con- 
stituted, even  the  most  independent,  though  ortho- 
dox in  creed,  are  the  proximate  reals  of  the  Ideal  in 
the  mind  of  the  Founder.  Those  which  existed  in  the 
first  settlements  on  the  New  England  coast,  when  to 
no  single  person  as  preacher,  teacher,  j^astor  or  ruler 
was  entrusted  such  ecclesiastical  preeminence,  seem 
to  have  come  nearer  to  the  Ideal  of  the  Master.  Paul's 
Church  Manual  declares :  "  But  unto  each  one  of  us 
was  the  grace  given  according  to  the  measure  of  the 
gift  of  Christ. — He  gave  some  to  be  apostles,  and  some 
prophets;  and  some  evangelists,  and  some  pastors 
and  teachers;  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  unto 
the  work  of  ministering,  unto  the  building  up  of  the 
body  of  Christ."  Eph.  4:  7-12.  The  office  of  ruler  is 
not  found  in  the  specification.  In  I  Cor.  xii:  28,  the 
apostle  enumerates  eight  specific  offices,  or  spheres 
of  church  work,  to  fill  which,  "God  hath  set,"  (con- 
stituted) as  many  members  of  the  church.  The  sev- 
enth rendered  "governments"  in  the  old  and  new 
versions,  means,  in  the  original,  simply  superintend- 
ents or  directors, — such  as  would  be  considered  in 
our  day  as  good  business  brethren.  A  pastor,  indeed, 
must  be  one  who  "  imles  well  his  own  house,  having 
his  children  in  subjection  with  all  gravity,"  as  a  qual- 
ification for  "taking  care,"  or  superintending,  (not 
ruling)  "of  the  church  of  God."  I  Tim.  iii:4,  5.  It 
is  true,  "  elders  "  are  frequently  referred  to  in  some 
of  the  Epistles,  as  if  they  designated  a  special  class 
of  officers  in  the  primitive  churches ;  but  it  is  believed 
that  the  original  word  was  used  simply  to  designate 
the  seniorSy — the  aged  among  the  laity  or  the  clergy, 


LORDING  OVER  GOD'S  HERITAGE.  325 

as  entitled  to  special  respect  from  their  age, — there- 
fore experience.  The  term  in  I  Tim.  v:  17,  as  also, 
its  cognates  in  I  Tim.  iii:4-12,  and  in  Rom.  xii:8 
might  be  more  correctly  translated  superintend,  sup- 
ervise, oversee:  that  is,  let  the  senior  or  the  older 
who  be  wise  in  the  administration  of  temporal  or 
spiritual  affairs  in  their  own  homes  or  the  church 
"  be  counted  worthy  of  double  honor,"  "  especially 
those  who  labor  in  the  word  and  in  teaching;"  so  that 
it  will  be  seen  from  the  structure  of  the  verse, 
the  injunction  is  not  confined  to  the  seniors  in  the 
ministry,  but  that  it  includes  also  the  seniors  among 
the  laity.  If  one  is  a  "  ruler,"  so  is  the  other.  Paul 
is  referring  to  qualifications  or  characteristics,  not  to 
office. 

In  some  denominations,  legislative  and  executive 
authority  is  vested  in  a  few,  and  those — clergymen 
who  are  supposed  to  embody  superior  talent,  wisdom 
and  piety.  At  elections  for  such  positions,  there  is  a 
clerical  scramble  for  them,  preceded,  sometimes,  by 
electioneering  that  would  equal  the  adroitness  and 
unscrupulosity  of  secular  politicians.  It  is  assumed, 
that  the  individual  churches  or  societies  are  not  com- 
petent to  rule  themselves  or  to  know  their  own  wants. 
These  few  bishops  or  elders  select  pastors,  formulate 
rules  of  church  government,  arraign,  try  and  disci- 
pline offenders;  in  important  convocations  for  the 
evangelization  of  men,  deny  to  the  common  member- 
ship the  vote.  Thus,  the  development  of  the  single 
churches  and  their  individual  members  is  repressed. 
For  such  procedure,  there  is  no  warrant  or  precedent 
in  the  Scriptures.     The  utterance  of  Jesus  is  decisive 


32G  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

in  regard  to  it.  The  rulers  of  the  Gentiles  lord  it 
over  them,  and  their  great  ones  exercise  authority 
over  them.  Not  so  shall  it  be  among  you;  but  who- 
soever would  become  great  among  you  shall  be  your 
servant;  and  whosoever  would  be  first  among  you 
shall  be  your  bond-servant;  even  as  the  Son  of  Man 
came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and 
to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many.  Matth.  xx :  25, 
Luke  xxii :  25. 

The  brotherhood  of  many  bodies  of  believers,  from 
whose  intelligence  and  piety,  the  ripe  fruits  of  a  ma- 
tured and  symmetrical  Christianity  are  expected,  de- 
ny to  the  sisterhood  equality  of  participation  in  ec- 
clesiastical transactions,  and  in  the  devotions  of 
church  life.  By  such  denial,  the  right,  responsibility 
and  ])rivileges  of  one-half,  if  not  more,  of  these  fam- 
ilies of  the  Christ  are  ignored;  their  spiritual  free- 
dom, development  and  elevation  repressed.  Nearly 
three-fourths  of  the  members  of  the  Congregational 
churches  at  one  time  in  Boston  were  females.  The 
old  leaven  of  heathenism  is  not  yet  thoroughly  purged 
out  from  these  Christian  bodies.  From  them,  the 
kingdom  of  Heaven  is  yet  afar  off.  They  have  only 
partially  seen  its  glory,  beauty  and  strength.  Until 
the  churches  and  mankind  are  blessed  with  full  and 
unrestrained  development  of  women's  gifts  and  graces, 
the  manifestation  of  Christianity  will  be  chiefly 
through  one  side  of  the  human, — to  that  extent  in- 
complete; and  the  love  element, — more  persuasive 
than  logic,  more  efficacious  in  its  influence  upon  the 
heart,  than  the  presentation  of  the  truth  itself,  will 


THE  COMMISSION  TO  EVERY  DISCIPLE.  327 

be  sadly  absent  from  means  and  measures  employed 
to  Christianize  the  world. 

The  Friends  in  worship^  not  of  course  in  every  fea- 
ture of  teaching  and  practice;  and  the  missions  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  associations  in  action,  seem 
to  be  the  extant  representatives  of  the  primitive  form 
and  practice.  The  churches  or  the  societies  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  recognized  several  persons  as  teach- 
ers and  guides  according  to  their  specific  gifts.  In 
churches  thus  organized  and  administered,  one  stood 
over  against  another  to  balance  any  undue  assumption 
on  his  part,  of  possessing,  through  nature,  education, 
or  grace,  a  monopoly  of  all  the  varieties  of  ecclesias- 
tical talent.  Of  course,  with  such  counterpoise  of 
gift  and  such  counterbalance  of  authority  and  influ- 
ence, there  must  have  been  more  liberty  of  speech 
and  action  in  church  life  than  in  our  times, — not  out- 
side of  it,  since  those  who  indulged  in  it,  did  it  to  the 
peril  of  their  backs  or  their  ears, — when  one  fallible, 
with  a  selected  board  of  deacons  or  vestry  men  as 
lieutenants,  is  allowed,  automatically  to  wield  such  a 
body,  and  to  place  undue  stress  upon  the  perform- 
ance of  certain  external  acts  as  tests  of  fidelity, — with 
no  recognition  of  the  prior  and  the  superior  behests 
of  each  individual  conscience.  Christianity  is  some- 
thing deeper,  broader  than  mere  church-going  on 
Seventh  day  or  the  First  day,  than  public  exhortation 
and  prayer  on  a  week  day,  than  even  in  money-giving 
so  much  per  monih,  and  in  being  present  at  Commun- 
ion seasons  so  many  times  a  year,  though  these  are 
important  in  their  relations,  and  are  indicative  of 
God-loving,  Christ-loving,  soul-loving.     They  are  sec- 


828  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

ondary  in  importance  however  to  some  higher  and 
more  comprehensive  things.  The  Christian  disciple 
is  called  to  liberty,  and  not  to  be  put  into  an  eccle- 
siastical straight- jacket.  To  develop  the  thought  and 
its  expression  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher, — churches 
are  but  hands  and  feet  to  take,  help  and  guide  one  for 
usefulness  to  others,  and  to  a  happy  entrance  upon 
the  celestial  life. 

Unfavorable  comparisons  have  been  made,  or  rath- 
er the  facts  themselves  do  make  the  comparison,  be- 
tween the  work  of  churches  and  that  of  th^  various 
missions  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  associations, 
through  which  thousands  above  the  average  of  al- 
leged conversions  in  the  churches  are  rescued  and 
professedly  brought  into  the  spiritual  kingdom,  at 
vastly  less  expenditure  of  material  means;  and  their 
Head-quarters, — costly  or  humble,  are  open  everyday 
and  night  in  the  week  for  spiritual  service  and  w^ork, 
and  not  chiefly,  on  the  First  day. 

But,  in  justice  to  the  churches,  it  ohould  be  consid- 
ered, that  they  are  not  merely  and  exclusively  in- 
strumentalities as  soul-savers,  but  are  also  soul-cultui'- 
ers — w^hich  is  not  so  demonstrative  and  summary 
work, — in  numbers  or  results. 

Jesus  unquestionably  commissioned  disciples  as 
individuals  or  as  churches  formal  or  informal, — not 
unbelievers — men  in  general,  simply  because  it  would 
have  been  irrational  to  commit  an  enterprise  to  those 
who  had  no  faith  or  interest  in  it;  who,  therefore, 
were  disqualified  to  embark  in  it.  But  in  doing  good 
to  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men,  there  cannot  be  any 


SOCIETIES  FOR  BENEFICENCE.  329 

monopoly  claimed  on  the  part  of  any  sect,  society, 
class,  or  order  of  men,  or  of  all  combined.  Jesus  for- 
bade it.  Mark  ix:  38-39.  Luke  ix:  49-50.  It  is  for- 
bidden in  the  nature  of  goodness.  The  privilege  is 
as  free  as  air  or  sunshine,  to  believer  and  unbeliever 
alike.  If  any  man  is  philanthropic,  he  is  in  sympa- 
thy with  Jesus  to  that  extent.  Nor  does  it  follow 
that  those  who  are  "without," — the  unevangelized, 
may  not  have  responsibilities  in  this  work;  but  be- 
cause they  would  not  have  heart  to  take  it  up  in  con- 
sequence of  their  unrenewed  state;  because  they 
would  be  destitute  of  grace  precedent  to  faith,  — the 
basis  of  all  hope  of  success  which  originates,  impels 
and  sustains  Christian  action;  because  it  would  be 
spiritually  impossible  that  such  should  enter  upon  it 
and  persevere  in  it  from  Christ!  y  motives.  They  are 
indeed  responsible  for  the  destitution  of  that 
which  they  might  possess,  and  therefore  for  all  the 
good  that  might  ensue  from  the  possession. 

Churches  nor  the  members  of  which  they  are  com- 
posed can  do  all  the  good  necessary  to  be  done  in 
the  world;  and  whatever  societies  outside  of  them — 
joint  stock  or  eleemosynary,  and  their  individual 
members — making  no  pretensions  to  be  regenerate 
persons,  or  to  be  actuated  by  the  purely  Christian 
impulse, — whatever  they  can  do  to  relieve  the  wants 
or  to  ameliorate  the  sufferings  of  others,  it  is  their 
privilege  and  duty  to  do.  Their  benevolence, — phil- 
anthropy are  noble;  and  so  far  as  they  have  been 
originated  by  the  love  which  Jesus  prescribed,  they 
are  Christian.  For  illustration:  The  objects  of  the 
"Illinois  Catholic  Order  of  Foresters" — not  a  secret  so- 


330  THE  OnRlST   IN   LIFE. 

ciety,  as  declared  in  its  constitution,  are  truly  noble 
and  Christ-like,  to  the  extent  of  their  application.  They 
are, — "to  promote  friendsliip,  unity,  and  true  Christian 
charity  among  its  members — friendship  in  assisting 
each  other  by  every  honorable  means  in  our  power ; 
unity  in  uniting  together  for  mutual  supj^ort  in  sick- 
ness and  death,  and  in  making  suitable  provision  for 
widows  and  orphans  of  deceased  members;  true 
Christian  charity  in  doing  unto  each  other  as  we 
should  like  others  to  do  unto  us." 

Does  not  the  organization  of  so  many  of  them  sug- 
gest to  the  Christian  churches  the  query,  whether 
they  may  not  in  cities  be  spending  too  much  time, 
relatively,  in  the  establishment  of  sectarian  missions, 
in  psalm  singing,  exhortation  and  experience  telling, 
and  not  enough  proportionally  in  ministering,  not 
only  to  the  souls,  but  to  the  bodies  of  the  needy  and 
the  suffering  poor — in  seeking,  searching  for  them? 
The  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost. 
Luke  xix:10. 

As  to  the  lawfulness,  consistency  of  the  affiliation 
of  Christians  with  organizations  which  claim  to  find 
their  origin  in  the  remote  depths  of  antiquity;  and 
which,  as  a  condition  of  membership  require  the 
hiding  of  their  transactions,  and  whatever  light 
they  have  under  a  bushel,  by  oaths  with  severe  pen- 
alties attached:  the  staple  of  whose  exercises  consist 
in  drilling  into  the  mastery  of  "  degrees  "  of  little  if 
any  practical  utility;  in  the  performance  of  fantastic 
ceremonies  interlarded  with  the  pronunciation  of 
bombastic  and  obsolete  phraseology;  vdiose  rites  over 
the  dead  have  a  tendency  to  delude   the   living  as  to 


THE  COMMISSION  TO  DISCIPLES.  331 

their  condition  and  destiny;  a  large  proportion  of 
whose  funds  are  squandered  in  toggery,  trinkets, 
and  parades;  whose  benevolent  feature  of  caring  for 
the  poor  and  the  afflicted  in  their  associated  families 
alone,  is,  though  a  Christ-like  work  so  far  as  it  goes, 
after  all,  but  the  deed  of  a  society  for  mutual  benefit, 
not  for  general  benevolence  outside  as  well  as  inside 
of  membership ;  there  is  reason  to  believe,  that  were 
Jesus  now  in  the  flesh.  He  would  reiterate  the  in- 
junction upon  His  disciples  with  respect  to  the  oh- 
jedionahle  feahires  specified:  "  Have  no  fellowship 
with  the  unfruitful  works  of  darkness,  but  rather  re- 
prove them." 

Mighty  is  the  potency  of  masses  of  men  in  associ- 
ation and  combination, — like-minded  and  like  hearted 
for  the  achievement  of  good  or  bad  purposes.  Their 
voice  is  like  that  of  many  waters,  and  of  a  great  thun- 
der. The  lavish  use  of  such  enginery,  for  the  arous- 
ing, stimulation,  and  combination  of  the  mental  or 
spiritual  forces  of  men,  is  a  marked  characteristic  of 
the  present  century.  Every  specific  benevolence  or 
philanthropic  movement  requires  the  creation  of  a 
society  to  represent  it,  or  is  succeeded  by  one. ' 
Unquestionably  such  organizations  ape  efficient  for 
the  attainment  of  certain  ends.  Numbers  are  potent. 
Union  is  magnetic.  Men  need  the  stimulation  and 
inspiration  of  each  other  in  association.     But  evils 

I .  The  Chinese  have  a  remarkable  propensity  for  forming  cor- 
porations,— one  for  every  class,  for  every  kind  of  trade,  for  every 
undertaking,  and  all  descriptions  of  business ;  even  the  beggars 
and  robbers  all  form  themselves  into  communities,  more  or  less 
numerous. — Abhe  Hue. 


33'2  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

Lave  developed  in  their  administration,  which  mak(^ 
it  questionable  in  the  minds  of  some,  whether  the  ef- 
ficiency for  good — especially  in  the  multiplying  of 
such  associations,  is  not  overbalanced  by  the  efficiency 
for  evil  in  administration.  They  tend  to  the  de- 
struction of  individuality  and  to  the  loss  of  the  recog- 
nition of  personal  and  individual  responsibility.  They 
usurp  the  special  work  of  the  individual. 

For  the  deliverance  of  His  Gospel  message  to  men 
in  every  portion  of  the  earth,  it  does  not  seem  prob- 
able, that  Jesus  issued  the  commission  to  such  indi- 
vidual disciples  alone  as  might  be  impressed  that  it 
was  their  duty  to  undertake  to  execute  it,  and,  them 
in  societies  external  to  those — instituted,  as  is  held, 
by  Jesus  Himself  or  by  His  authority.  The  injunc- 
tion must  have  been  to  them,  whether  as  churches  or 
as  individuals.  There  is  individual,  and  there  is  as- 
sociate or  combined  responsibility  in  the  world's 
evangelization.  If  the  assumption  of  such  work  by 
such  individual  members  as  are  moved  to  combine 
together  "without"  for  its  prosecution, — not  as  indi- 
viduals but  as  corporations,  voluntary  or  close, — re- 
sponsible to  none  but  themselves,  in  which  their 
individuality  is  blended  or  distinctively  lost,  and  per- 
sonal responsibility  apparently,  though  not  in  reality 
sunk, — for  no  man  can  escape  his  personal  account- 
ability for  the  sanction  given  by  the  use  of  his  name 
or  of  his  influence  in  a  society  or  corporation, — he 
cannot  in  reality  lose  it  in  societies,  communities  or 
nations; — if  the  assumption  of  such  work  by  such 
bodies,  not  recognized  or  amenable  as  churches,  is 
expedient,  then  it  would  seem  they  need  not  be  fet- 


FOUNDERS  OP  MODERN  SOCIETYISM.  333 

tered  by  those  regulations  which  Jesus  prescribed  for 
them  in  ecclesiastical  life,  but  be  guided  only  by  their 
own  notions  of  wisdom  or  policy.  It  is  easy  to  per- 
cieve,  from  inevitable  tendencies  in  human  nature, 
abundantly  exemplified  in  history,  that  there  is  noth- 
ing to  hinder  them,  outside  of  sanctifying,  preserving 
grace,  from  coming  to  be  Avielded  by  a  few — the  ablest, 
the  most  sagacious,  the  aspiring  and  perhaps  self- 
seeking, — secretaries,  boards,  executive  committees. 
Of  necessity,  the  keenest  in  intellect,  the  subtlest 
strdent  of  human  nature,  the  strongest  in  will,  come 
to  wield  them  as  by  the  will  of  one.  If  that  one  could 
only  be  infallible  as  was  the  Master,  unquestionably, 
it  would  be  for  the  good  of  mankind.  Ignatius  Loy- 
ola, the  founder  of  modern  Societyism,  was,  so  far  as 
men  can  judge,  a  sincere  Christian;  so  were  many  if 
not  most  of  his  early  associates.  The  end  of  the 
means  employed  was  certainly  Christly;  it  was  noth- 
ing less  than  the  Christianization  of  the  world.  These 
early  Jesuits  were  undoubtedly  self-denying,  heroic. 
But  what  a  potent  enginery  for  evil  the  Society  sub- 
sequently became  through  its  irresponsibility  to  the 
churches, — its  constitutionally  required,  as  well  as 
naturally  tending  subjection  to  the  will  of  a  few  or  of 
one!  Such  regimen  under  the  intellectually  strong, 
sagacious  and  wise,  who  for  the  most  part  are  clergy- 
men, may  prove  most  efficient  for  what  is  undertaken 
to  be  wrought,  but  the  Christly  spirit  and  the  enter- 
prise in  the  individuals  of  the  humbler  laity  are  not 
properly  developed. 

Doubtless,   the  origin  of  these   societies,   among 
Protestants,  as  among  Papists,  grew  out  of  the  leth- 


834  THE   CllKlsr   IN    LIFE. 

argy  of  the  churches  with  respect  to  foreign  mis- 
sions, conjoined  with  the  fact  that  the  ambitious,  the 
enterprising,  the  zealous  or  the  self-seeking,  found 
that  they  could  not  manipulate  them  with  the  facility 
that  they  could  external  bodies, — voluntary,  ecclesias- 
tically irresponsible,  and  untrammeled.  But  the 
apathetic  churches  should  have  been  quickened,  puri- 
fied, stimulated  to  take  hold  of  their  appropriate  work, 
instead  of  being  thus  abandoned. 

Congregationalists  inaugurated  the  grand  foreign 
missionary  movement  in  the  United  States  nearly 
eighty  years  since,  which  has  been  fruitful  in  such 
glorious  results  among  the  heathen.  But,  in  the  con- 
struction of  instrumentalities  therefor,  they  unfortu- 
nately fastened  on  their  churches  a  system  of  means, 
the  eradication  of  whose  roots  from  their  ecclesias- 
tical soil  with  their  interlacing  fibres,  or,  even,  theii' 
mere  loosening,  will  require  the  assembling  of  many 
"National  Conferences."  To  reconstruct,  or  to  take 
the  House  of  Lords  out  of  the  British  Constitution, 
do  the  Commons  find  it  easy? 

"  Power 

Strong  in  possession,  founded  in  old  custom; 
Power  by  a  thousand  tough  and  stringy  roots 
Fix'd  to  the  people's  pious  nursery  faith. 


For  time  consecrates ; 

And  what  is  gray  with  age  becomes  religion."  i 

These  bodies  have  been  composed  of  the  elite  of 
the  churches, — in  ability,  culture,  and  enterprise, — 
embracing  a  large  amount  of  their  piety.  Some  of 
them  have  become  colossal  in  structure  and  move- 
ment. They  are  as  efficient,  as  mighty  in  combina- 
I.     Wallenstein. 


THE  WORK  COMMITTED  TO  ALL  DISCIPLES.  335 

tion,  in  resources,  men  and  means,  as  ever  was  "  the 
Society  of  Jesus."  No  assemblages  grander,  more 
impressive,  more  inspiring  than  those  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board  ever  convened.  The  atmosphere  pervading 
them,  at  times,  has  been  redolent  of  Heaven.  Their 
results  for  the  last  half -century  have  been  grand;  no 
achievements  in  the  spiritual  history  of  the  world 
since  Pentecost  have  been  so  wonderful.  They  en- 
able the  Christian  to  anticipate  the  glorious  consum- 
mation of  the  mission  and  the  work  of  Jesus,  not  only 
through  faith,  but  through  sight  of  what  has  been 
achieved. 

But  serious  evils,  gigantic  corruptions,  have  grown 
up  with  them.  They  overshadow  with  baleful  influ- 
ence the  great  good  they  have  achieved.  The  hugest 
are  close  corporations;  they  perpetuate  themselves; 
neither  churches  as  such  nor  the  great  body  of  the 
sustaining  people  control  them ;  they  are  chiefly  of- 
ficered and  wielded  by  a  class, — the  strongest  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  co-operating  laity;  widows  and  other 
poor  contributors  who  can  only  cast  in  mites, — whose 
alms  and  prayers  prevail  with  God,  have  no  potency 
in  their  administration,  not  even  a  paper  or  a  sheep- 
skin certificate  of  life-membership.  True:  the  Christly- 
moved  need  not,  desire  not  such  incitements,  such 
ends  to  their  giving.  But  the  Societies  in  action  need 
their  prayers,  influence,  and  co-operation.  The  amount 
of  money  annually  to  be  disbursed;  the  ramified 
system  of  agencies  to  be  directed;  the  multiform  is- 
sues of  the  press  to  be  distributed;  the  direction  of 
so  many  men  and  women;  are  powers  too  extensive 
to  b©  mtrusted  to  a  few,  fallible  and  frail, — as  are  alL 


330  THE   ClIKIST   IN   LIFE. 

The  Societies  will  inevitably  come  in  time  to  be 
wielded  by  the  one  master-minded  of  them  all,  if  he 
is  adequate,  subtle,  politic  and  wise,  or  by  him  who, 
though  he  may  be  intellectually  inferior  to  others  of 
his  coadjutors,  yet,  from  the  authority  vested  in  his 
official  position,  the  facilities  and  opportunities  thus 
afforded  to  consolidate  it,  is  made  more  than  a  match 
for  his  associates,  if  he  is  disposed  to  play  the  master. 
There  are  few  with  grace  sufficient  to  resist  the  temp- 
tation to  use  or  abuse  the  i)ower  placed  within  their 
grasp,  esi^ecially  if  they  are  arbitrarily  inclined,  and 
every  man,  it  is  said,  has  a  pope  in  him.  It  is  not  be- 
lieved that  Jesus  intended  that  so  much  power  should 
be  committed  into  the  hands  of  a  few  men, — much  less 
the  one  man  who  may,  by  superior  intellectual  strength, 
or  what  is  more  probable,  by  the  facilities  of  position 
and  opportunity,  have  worked  his  way  to  the  head  of 
his  order.  It  is  not  believed  He  contemplated,  that 
so  comparatively  few  of  the  brotherhood  and  sister- 
hood should  assume  the  responsibility  of  conducting 
a  work  which,  it  is  evident,  He  devolved  upon  all; 
that  such  few  should  seclude  this  work  to  themselves, 
and  entail  it  to  their  class  and  their  elect;  that  the 
disbursement  of  the  funds  contributed  by  believers 
in  general;  the  various  agencies  of  persons  and  the 
press;  above  all,  that  the  missionaries  and  their  work 
should  be  wielded  automatically  by  the  wills  of 
Boards,  Committees,  Secretaries; — the  Head-Centers 
and  Ecclesiastical  Generals  of  the  organizations. 

It  is  believed,  that  He  would  have  every  active  sol- 
dier of  His,  who  is  evidently  commissioned,  go  to  the 
spiritual  battle  field,  equipped  with  the  weapons  that 


MISSIONARIES  UNDER  DIRECTION  OF  BOARDS.        337 

nature,  discipline,  and  grace  had  prepared  for  him, — 
left  free  to  war  spiritually  in  the  way,  and  at  the 
times,  his  genius  and  his  sanctified  judgment  dictate ; 
that,  if  he  could  not  go  formally  commissioned  by 
churches  of  which  he  may  be  a  member,  he  might  on 
his  individual  election  and  responsibility,  as  did  Paul 
and  the  earlier  disciples.  These  primitive  disciples, 
when  dispersed  through  persecution,  went  everywhere 
preaching  the  Word,  as  they  were  individually 
impressed  by  rational  or  super-rational  convic- 
tion, without  waiting  for  the  commission  of  fallible 
brethren,  who  could  not  assume  and  execute  respon- 
sibilities exclusively  personal  to  them  as  individuals. 
Many  members  of  these  Boards  and  some  Secre- 
taries have  been  among  the  best  and  the  wisest  of 
men, — memories  of  whom  will  ever  be  pleasant  and 
fragrant.  There  have  been  others,  the  savor  of  whose 
doings  will  not  be  so  sweet-smelling.  Though  they 
may  have  been  great  and  good,  they  could  never  as- 
sume the  obligations  of  others, — though  inferior  to 
them  in  mental  or  gracious  endowments.  What  is 
the  fact, — with  respect  to  those  ardent,  earnest  natures 
who  surrender  their  bodies  and  souls  with  their  con- 
victions to  the  will  and  direction  of  Boards  and  Sec- 
retaries? Do  they  not  sink  their  personal  responsi- 
bility with  respect  to  the  kind  and  mode  of  their 
work,  much  as  did  a  Catholic  inferior  to  the  will  of 
his  superior?  Do  they  not  go  forth  to  the  mission- 
ary field  with  intellectual  and  moral  natures,  with  ed- 
ucational endowments,  with  spiritual  convictions,  re- 
pressed or  cramped  and  trammeled?    Are  they  not 

22 


338  THE   CHlllST   IN    LIFE. 

subject  to  the  espionage  of  the  missionary  coterie 
with  which  they  may  be  associated  ?  If  they  are  self- 
reliant  by  original  make  or  through  grace;  or  if  they 
are  conscientiously  insubordinate  to  the  cast,  direct- 
ion and  measures  of  the  fallible  Board,  or  still  more 
fallible  Secretary,  thousands  of  miles  afar;  are  they 
not  reported  by  this  coterie  to  the  management  at 
home?  Will  not, — after  measures  to  secure  sub- 
mission and  repression  have  proved  ineffectual, — if 
not  recalled  and  dismissed  from  the  service, — will 
not  their  cases  be  prudentially  taken  under  advise- 
ment, and  at  the  proper  time,  they  not  be  peremptorily 
ordered  or  affectionately  invited  home,  then  sent 
into  some  distant  section  of  the  home  field,  to  pine  in 
silence  and  to  die  ?  Is  not  such  an  end  of  a  trustful 
and  consecrated  life  very  sad?  Is  it  not  excruciating 
to  refined  sensitive  ones,  as  such  devoted  men  and 
women  are  ? 

The  course  of  the  Master  was  significantly  different. 
He  rebuked  immediately  and  effectually  where  re- 
buke was  needed.  He  was  infallible.  Boards  and  Sec- 
retaries are  not.^  He  was  ever  patient,  charitable, 
tolerant  with  human  infirmity.  In  the  realm  of  the 
spiritual  liberty  provided  for  His  followers,  there  is 
ample  room  for  the  by-play  of  every  natural  and  gra- 
cious endowment,  and  it  may  be  added,  for  the  aber- 
rations of  believers, — inseparable  from  their  develop- 

I.  A  useful  member  of  the  Board  was  one  who  would  origi- 
nate nothing,  and  always  vote   with  Mr.   Bulstrode.     .     .     . 

Mrs.  Bulstrode  believed,  that  her  husband  was  one  of  lliose 
men  whose  memoirs  should  be  written  when  they  died. — Middle- 
march. 


PAUL  AND  SILAS  COMMITTED  TO  THE  GRACE  OF  GOD.   339 

ment.  Violent  eradication  or  repression  by  others 
like  fallible  and  frail,  of  what  is  deemed  by  them 
abnormal,  unsightly,  and  unlovely  in  disciples,  if  it 
could  be  achieved,  would  result  only  in  the  destruct- 
ion of  individuality  and  in  the  paralysis  of  usefulness. 
As  Jesus  seemed  to  intimate,  excellency  and  defect 
should  be  suffered  to  grow  together  unto  their  har- 
vest; when  the  wheat  of  one  will  be  gathered  into  the 
garner,  and  the  tare  of  the  other  into  the  fire.  Time, 
light,  reflection,  gracious  instruction,  and  reproof  will 
rectify  the  deflection  of  the  consecrated  mind  and 
heart,  round  off  the  angularities  of  nature,  and  sym- 
metrize Christian  character.  Souls  which  are  open 
for  the  in-dwelling  of  the  Spirit,  will  never  fail  to  be 
guided  by  Him  into  all  the  Truth.  Because  Peter 
was  presumptuous  and  the  sons  of  Zebedee  vengeful, 
did  the  Master  cast  them  out? — recall  their  commis- 
sion?—even  suspend  them?  He  dealt  with  disciples 
as  with  children.  Thus  God,  the  Father  deals  with 
all  in  His  providence.  Thus  should  all  earthly  and 
spiritual  parents  or  guardians, — with  theirs,  and  their 
wards. 

When  the  contention  between  Barnabas  and  Paul 
was  so  sharp,  that  they  parted  asunder  one  from  the 
other,  because  the  former  "  determined  to  take  with 
them "  his  kinsman  Mark,  and  the  latter  thought  it 
not  good  to  do  so  since  Mark  withdrew  from  them 
at  Pamphilia  and  went  not  with  them  to  the  work, — 
an  inefficient — or  recalcitrant, — "crooked  stick," — 
"broken  tooth," — " foot  out  of  joint"  as  he  may  have 
been;  the  brethren  of  the  church  at  Antioch  or  at  the 
"  head-quarters  "  in  Jerusalem  did  not  undertake  to 


340  THE  CHRIST   IN    LIFE. 

forbid  the  entrance  of  frail  Mark  into  a  missionary 
field;  nor  did  Paul  himself, — who  evidently  was  the 
stronger  party,  and  carried  with  him  the  majority  of 
the  sentiment,  and  the  confidence  of  the  brethren  in 
Antioch, — for  it  is  stated,  that  he  departed  with  Silas 
in  the  place  of  Mark,  "  being  recommended  "  literally 
having  been  given  over  or  commUfed,  "  by  the  breth- 
ren unto   the    grace    of   God," — 7:apadnffz\q  rfj  ydpin  TOO 

OeoT)  or.o  zwv  adeXcpm'^^  ^  undertake  to  wield  his  overshad- 
owing influence  with  his  brethren,  to  induce  them  to 
put  the  ban  upon  peccable  Mark.  Peter  and  Paul, 
also,  differed  essentially  on  important  topics  of  faith 
and  practice.  It  is  evident  that  the  apostolic  mission- 
aries were  a  self-reliant,  independent  class  of  individ- 
uals, as  all  Godly,  Christly-educated  men  will,  must 
be.  The  Boards  of  our  time  could  not  have  manipu- 
lated or  repressed  such.  Timber  springing  out  of 
such  soil  will  always  be  more  gnarly  than  straight- 
grained  or  elastic. 

Labor  unions  in  large  cities  illustrate  the  tyranny 
with  which  associations  can  be  wielded  to  repress  in- 
dividual freedom, — to  prevent  individuals  from  sel- 
ling,— in  the  exercise  of  their  right,  their  services 
material  or  mental,  for  the  interest  of  themselves  and 
dependents.  Not  only  have  they  been  driven  off 
from  their  place  of  occupation,  but  they  have  been 
violently  assaulted  on  the  streets  and  their  lives  im- 
perilled, as  they  went  to  and  from  their  homes. 

As  at  present  constructed,  religious  organizations 
do  not  foster,  rather  tend  to  repress  independency  of 
thought, — individual    expression,  by  their  power  to 

I.     Acts  xiv:  23-26;  XV  :  40. 


REPRESSION  OF  INDIVIDUALITY.  341 

combine  and  wield  opinion.  Their  zeal,  energy, 
enterprise,  piety  never  equal  that  of  the  average  of 
their  members.  The  conservative  prevail  in  them 
through  their  vis  inertice.  The  centripetal  gains  upon 
the  centrifugal.  The  tendency  is  to  a  dead  center. 
The  individuality  of  those  who  would  be  in  good  re- 
pute in  them  is  lost.  Slavishness  of  opinion,  subserv- 
iency of  spirit  are  induced.  Only  a  certain  class  of 
minds — of  temperaments, —  the  pliable,  the  slow- 
moving,  the  conservative,  or  those  who  choose  to  be 
subtle  can  rise  in  them  to  position  or  influence.  The 
retiring,  the  unaspiring,  the  unostentatious,  the  fear- 
less, the  single-minded  and  straight-forward  are  ig- 
nored; the  independent  by  constitution  or  through 
grace,  the  conscientiously  recusant  are  tabooed.  To 
the  first  only  is  the  eye  directed  for  official  successors 
by  those  in  power;  and  they  alone  are  kept  in  train- 
ing for  the  purpose  at  the  anniversaries,  in  the  com- 
position of  committees,  or  in  the  moving  of  controlling 
resolutions  previously  prepared.  Such  institutions 
accord  well  with  the  Papacy,  or  with  Episcopacy — 
off-shoot  of  the  same,  and  to  a  certain  extent  witli- 
Presbyterianism,  which  more  consistently  prefers 
the  use  of  church  boards  elected  by  assemblies,  made 
up  of  accredited  delegates  from  churches,  synods,  and 
presbyteries,  to  that  of  organizations  unelected  by  its 
churches,  and  irresponsible  to  them  or  it.  But  they 
do  not  accord  with  Independency  or  Congregational- 
ism, where  the  will  of  the  majority  is  supposed  ever 
to  prevail,  and  which  are  professedly  the  democracy 
of  the  sects. 
From  the  necessity  of  their  official  relations  to  the 


342  THE   CHRIST    IN    LIFE. 

Boards  which  commission  them,  their  commitment, 
in  advance,  of  obedience  to  "instructions,"  and 
through  the  entire  period  of  their  service,  their  vir- 
tual pledge  to  refrain  from  or  to  repress  public  ex- 
pression of  convictions  or  opinions  with  respect  to 
the  wisdom  or  justness  of  official  measures, — the  mis- 
sionaries themselves  sent  out  come  in  time  to  be  of 
the  pliant  sort.  Those  differently  constituted  or  ed- 
ucated are  discouraged.  If,  by  some  oversight  or 
mistaken  judgment  of  character,  unmanageable  ones 
have  got  into  the  mission  field;  as  has  been  previously 
said,  efforts  are  naturally  made  to  get  them  home,  or 
they  are  goaded  into  resignation  unless  they  are  too 
strong  to  be  crushed  out;— then, — it  is  sad  to  state, 
efforts  sometimes  have  been  made  to  destroy  their 
reputation  at  home.  Of  one  such,  a  missionary  Sec- 
retary remarked:  "  God  may  be  able  to  work  with 
him,  but  men  can't."  He  should  have  said:  If  God 
can  work  with  him,  men  can,  I  can  and  ought.  Once 
home,  such  unpliant  laborers  retire  to  private  station 
or  secular  employment,  or  are  exiled  through  stress 
of  circumstances  to  some  distant  portion  of  the  home 
field,  where  the  beautiful  of  life  to  them  having  van- 
ished, losing  heart  and  hope,  they  are  left  to  pine 
and  die,  as  hopelessly,  as  sadly,  as  ever  did  a  refrac- 
tory priest  in  the  dungeon  of  the  Inquisition. 

They  are  chiefly  officered  by  clergymen,  and  some- 
times by  returned  missionaries,  who  if  they  have  been 
called  into  the  ministry,  and  that  among  the  heathen, 
should  have  given  their  lives  to  it.  If  they  could  not 
find  churches  to  support  them,  they  should  do  as  did 
Paul,    support  themselves   by  brain  work  or  hand 


NOT  MONEY— BUT  THE  HOLY  SPIBIT.  843 

work  in  some  secular  vocation,  and  gird  themselves 
to  the  work  of  the  Lord  as  opportunity  opens. 

Would  Paul  have  stood  so  pre-eminently  distin- 
guished through  the  ages  for  Christian  heroism,  and 
have  bequeathed  to  humanity  such  a  sublime  example 
of  self-abnegation  and  disinterestedness  for  its  adorn- 
ment and  Christianization,  if, — after  a  farewell  to 
weeping  loved  and  loving  ones,  exclaiming  to  them 
"Why  do  ye  weep  and  break  my  heart?"— flaming 
through  the  Eastern  hemisphere  with  the  avowal  of 
being  ready  for  a  yoke  of  service  or  an  altar  of  sacrifice, 
spending  scores  of  years  among  the  heathen 
until  he  had  become  acclimated,  acquiring  such 
familiarity  with  their  tongue  as  to  communicate  to 
them  in  it  the  wonderful  works  and  words  of  God, 
measurably  overcoming  the  multifarious  obsta- 
cles that  confront  a  missionary  in  the  daring,  and  hu- 
manly forlorn  attempt  to  eradicate  a  religious  belief 
of  ages,  and  to  substitute  therefor  an  exotic  and  an- 
tagonistic creed, — would  he  have  continued  to  be  a 
burning  and  a  shining  light  through  all  succeeding 
times, — if  he  had  returned  to  Jerusalem  or  Antioch, 
to  spend  the  balance  of  his  days  comfortably  as  a 
Secretary  or  Agent  of  a  Society?  "No  man,  having 
put  his  hand  to  the  plough  and  looking  back,  is  fit 
for  the  kingdom  of  God."     Luke  ix:  62. 

The  accumulated  funds  of  Book  Concerns,  Bible, 
Tract  and  Publication  Societies  are  means  of  corrup- 
tion to  those  who  have  to  do  with  their  disbursement. 
One  of  the  uses  of  such,  besides  the  issue  of  denom- 
inational literature  and  collateral  purposes,  is  the 
furnishing  of  pabulum  for  an  "  organ  "  and  provender 


344  THE   (nrillST   IN   IJFK. 

for  au  editor,  who  perliapy  had  "  made  a  mess  of  it " 
iu  some  previous  vocation.  They  unwarrantably  in- 
terfere wdth  individual  enterprises,  by  their  ability  to 
use  funds — not  always  contributed  for  such  purpose 
— to  undersell  the  market,  at  or  below  the  cost  of 
manufacture, — a  violation  of  the  equitable  principles 
of  business,  to  which,  it  is  not  believed,  the  direct  ex- 
ecutors of  the  Saviour's  Commission  are  ever  called. 
Their  strength  is  from  above,  not  from  beneath.  It 
is  not  so  mu,cli  money  that  they  want,  as  the  invig- 
oration,  illumination  and  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
God  will  pour  money  enough  into  their  coffers,  if  they 
will  trust  Him, — limit  and  concentrate  their  endeav- 
ors, as  He  has  limited  and  centered.  If  money  ad- 
equate, as  they  compute,  does  not  come,  and  with  the 
speed  they  aspire  for,  let  them  wait.  God  waited 
four  thousand  years  before  He  sent  His  Son.  They 
are  not  responsible  for  the  quick  or  tardy  evangeliza- 
tion of  men,  only  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  what 
is  committed  to  their  trust.  They  must  work  no  faster 
than  as  He  opens  the  way.  They  are  agents,  not 
principals, — executors,  not  legislators, — servants,  not 
Master.  Their  vocation  is  single,  specific.  God  will 
work  overrulingly,  through  commercial  enterprises, 
and  all  the  avenues  of  trade,  for  the  realization  of 
His  grand  designs, — is  combining  all  things  to  con- 
verge to  the  glorious  end.  But  the  special  requisition 
upon  those  whom  He  has  called  to  execute  His  Gos- 
pel Commission  is  to  publish  and  expound  it,  and  to 
illustrate  the  truth  in  their  lives,  to  give  themselves 
to  it  as  they  are  prepared  by  nature  and  grace;  some 
to  teach,  some  to  preach,  some  to  pray,  some  to  sing, 


SOCIETIES  OVEKSHADOWING  THE  CHURCHES.  345 

some  to  write,  tlie  many  to  give  as  the  Lord  lias  pros- 
pered them.  They  can't  serve  God  and  Mammon  at 
the  same  time.  If  they  would  serve  Mammon  while 
they  are  serving  God— for  the  sake  of  serving  Him,  let 
them  become  incorporated  under  another  name. 

Societies  have  wielded  a  dangerous  power  over  the 
churches — in  the  selection  and  retention  of  their  pas- 
tors, in  the  direction  of  their  spiritual  forces,  and 
pecuniary  contributions.  The  Secretaries  and  Agents 
"have  a  passion  for"  their  calling.  They  are  ex- 
pected to  have  it  in  fact  or  professionally.  They  will 
magnify  it  of  course;  they  will  not  fail  to  endeavor 
to  obtain  a  shaping  and  controlling  influence  over 
the  great  sources  of  their  material  and  spiritual  pros- 
perity. They  will  be  conscientious  in  doing  it,  and 
with  their  professions,  it  might  be  expected  they 
would  be  zealous  and  politic;  nor  can  they  be  re- 
prehended for  it,  having  such  confidence  in  the  abso- 
lute as  well  as  relative  importance  of  their  societies. 
Their  brethren  should  not  lead  them  into  temptation. 
To  acquire  such  influence  here,  there  and  everywhere 
will  be  their  constant  study.  They  will  have  time  for 
it,  while  the  pastors  and  members  of  their  churches 
are  absorbed  in  their  various  religious  and  secular  oc- 
cupations. Secretaries,  in  large  cities  particularly, 
have  been  known  to  settle  and  unsettle  pastors,  as 
these  pastors  have  favored  or  disfavored  their  pet  or- 
ganizations. Independent  and  self-reliant,  yet  de- 
voted and  true  ministers  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  have  often 
found  it  difficult  to  obtain  a  foothold  in  the  confidence 
of  churches  needing  pastors,  through  the  baleful  in- 
fluence of  some  Secretary  or  Agent  interposed.     The 


340  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

churches  themselves  are  drilled  to  become  systematic 
coutributors  at  stated  periods  during  the  year, — 
inferior  auxiliaries  to  all  these  exterior  instrumen- 
talities,— deemed  superior  to  the  New  Testament 
organization.  Standing  committees  are  constituted 
in  many  churches  to  solicit  of  each  individual  mem- 
ber a  contribution  for  each  of  them;  and  any  one  who 
refuses, — save  those  who  are  compelled  to  from 
their  well-known  poverty, — may  expect  to  lose  caste 
with  brethren  and  sisters,  notwithstanding  they  may 
be  conscientious  in  declining,  believing  it  their  priv- 
ilege as  well  as  their  duty  to  be  the  almoners  of  their 
own  benefactions,  at  such  times,  in  such  unrevealed 
ways,  to  such  objects  or  persons — specified  or  un- 
specified, as  they  may  choose — providentially  thrust 
upon  their  attention  with  their  impressive  appeals,  as 
if  Heaven  itself  had  brought  about  the  junction  to 
bless  not  only  him  that  takes,  but  him  that  gives. 

Thus,  through  this  web  of  influence  woven  about 
them,  instead  of  being  sovereign  instrumentalities 
themselves  in  the  world's  evangelization  under  the 
lead  of  their  Master,  the  churches  come  to  be  inferior 
and  secondary,  tributary  and  auxiliary  to  these  exter- 
ior ones — offspring  of  the  wisdom  of  men. 

The  denominational  "organs"  are  virtually  under 
their  control.  Such  inducements  of  a  pecuniary  and 
official  character,  supplemented  with  the  hope  of  en- 
larged usefulness,  are  ojBPered,  that  ministers  having 
talent  for  management  and  skill  in  finance  are  gener- 
ally employed  to  officer  them.  Becoming  officially 
Head-Centers,  Generals  of  their  order,  their  espion- 
age necessarily  extends  everywhere  from  the  "Rooms" 


EACH  ONE  ACCORDING  TO  INDIVIDUAL  ABILITY.  347 

of  their  Kome.  It  is  in  their  power  to  interfere  seri- 
ously with  the  weal  of  any  recusant  Journal,  which 
refuses  to  become  the  willing  and  subservient  instru- 
ment of  the  enterprises  they  represent.  What  good 
man  will  neglect  to  wield  every  potency  available  to 
promote  the  well-being  of  a  cause  he  believes  to  be 
good,  and  which  he  has  espoused?  Ambitious  self- 
seekers,  of  course,  will  never  fail  to  do  it.  The  con- 
ductors of  these  "  organs  "  know  very  well,  that  it  is 
as  much  as  the  life  of  their  enterprises  is  worth  to 
dare  to  question  their  scriptural  authorization,  or  the 
wisdom  and  economy  of  their  measures.  There  is  a 
constant  and  unremitting  effort  to  link  every  other 
denominational  interest  as  ligaments  for  their  support; 
above  all,  as  pecuniary  ducts  to  the  reservoirs  of  their 
charities.  Funerals  of  distinguished  members,  be- 
longing rather  to  humanity  and  Christianity  than  to 
a  sect, — to  a  denomination  than  to  societies, — have 
been  manipulated,  so  as  to  be  made  tributary  to  such 
a  result.  In  a  notice  by  a  correspondent  of  such  a 
funeral  in  a  distant  Journal,  after  a  specification  of 
the  pall -bearers,  it  was  added:  thus  was  this,  that  and 
the  other  great  interest  of  the  denomination  repre- 
sented on  the  occasion ! 

Men  don't  need  any  more  instrumentalities  for 
their  evangelization  than  divine  wisdom  has  provided. 
All  that  is  needed  is  to  embody  the  New  Testament 
Ideal  according  to  the  New  Testament  Real; — that 
every  member  of  these  churches  be  filled  with  the 
Holy  Spirit,  charged  with  energy,  zeal,  wisdom,  love, 
that  he  or  she  execute  with  fidelity  that  which  God 
has  committed  to  his  or  her  trust,  in  the  gift  of  orig- 


848  THE   CHIIIST    IN    LIFE. 

iual  endowment,  or  of  subsequent  culture, — of  prov- 
idential bestowment,  or  in  the  solemn  juncture  of 
opportunity.  "  To  each  one  according  to  his  individ- 
ual ability!"  Exdffruj  xazd  TijV  ifJiau  duvafxcv.  "Be  occu- 
pied   in    business    till   I   come!"      Upay/xareuffUff^e    ?a*? 

The  propagation  of  Christianity,  through  human 
instrumentality  under  God,  is  a  simple  business  as  is 
revealed.  His  grace  is  sovereign  and  independent  of 
means.  But  He  chooses  to  employ  such  means.  It 
is  not  complicated  nor  needs  any  complexity.  It  lies 
through  the  influence,  the  light,  the  example  of  re- 
newed hearts,  of  sanctified  lives — consistent  with  the 
profession  made.  It  is  in  the  consecration  and  faith- 
ful use  of  all  gifts,  with  whatever  a  disciple  is  en- 
dowed; the  imj)rovement  of  every  opj^ortunity  for 
doing  good, — nothing  more,  nothing  less.  He  has 
given  to  each  child  of  His,  each  Christian  disciple, 
his  peculiar  sphere  of  labor,  according  to  his  natural 
and  gracious  gifts, — his  culture  and  providential  cir- 
cumstances. There  is  a  niche  to  be  filled  in  the  up- 
rising Temple  of  God  by  every  individual  gift,  how- 
ever humble.  There  can  be  none  which  is  not  needed 
to  complete  the  divine  structure,  and  to  make  it  sym- 
metrical from  the  massive  foundation  to  the  vanish- 
ing point  of  spire;  whether  of  prayer,  exhortation, 
singing,  teaching  or  writing;  whether  in  legislative 
administrative,  agricultural,  mechanical,  mercantile, 
literary,  scientific,  artistic  or  financial  skill.  Did  each 
one  know  his  gift,  apprehend  his  mission,  find  his 
sphere  of  activity,  and  occupy  with  fidelity,  encroach- 
never  upon  the  sphere  of  any  other,  there  would  be 


MISSIONARIES — TRUSTED,  NOT  TRAMMELED.         349 

as  much  order,  harmony  and  efficiency  in  spiritual  move- 
ments among  men  as  there  is  in  the  material  heavens. 
As  there  would  be  no  necessity  for  civil  governments 
if  every  individual  was  self -governed;  so  in  the  king- 
dom of  grace  would  there  be  need  for  societies  ex- 
ternal to  the  churches,  close  corporations  for  the  ex- 
ecution of  the  Commission  ?  They  may  be  useful  to 
stimulate,  combine,  concentrate  and  intensify  indi- 
vidual zeal,  to  induce  liberal  benefactions  to  the  com- 
mon object  of  love, — especially,  since  men  naturally 
incline  to  the  use  of  the  huge,  the  intricate,  the  compli- 
cate, the  pretentious,  and  the  ostentatious  in  attempt- 
ing to  do  good — for  they  strike  the  imagination,  in- 
stead of  the  simple  ways  of  the  Lord  as  prescribed. 
Men  have  more  faith  in  the  grand  or  mystic  flourish 
of  some  distinguished  prophet's  hand  over  leprous 
sin,  than  in  the  direct  and  immediate  execution  of 
the  simple  prescription  of  the  Almighty  Himself: 
"  Go  wash  in  Jordan  seven  times  and  thou  shalt  be 
clean."  Numbers  are  magnetic  and  potent.  Indi- 
vidualism— individual  action  varied  as  the  diversity 
of  gifts  and  spheres  of  activity,  it  is  believed,  is  more 
in  accordance  with  the  constitution  of  men  and  with 
the  teachings  of  Jesus,  who  imposed  personal  obliga- 
tions with  their  inseparable  responsibility.  He  in- 
deed never  proscribed  union  for  the  prosecution  of 
His  divine  work;  nor  did  He  ever  prescribe  it  to  the 
supersession  of  individual  freedom.  He  devolved 
that  work  on  each  and  every  one  of  His  disciples, 
and  then  sent  them  out,  saying  to  them  as  such, 
"freely  ye  have  received,  freely  give." 
Every  Christian,  then,  has  some  gift  to  use,  some 


350  THE  CHIIIST   IN    LIFE. 

call  to  heed.  If  he  is  called,  as  he  believes,  to  the 
heathen,  it  is  his  privilege  to  go  with  or  without  the 
consent  of  others.  Their  judgments  are  not  the  rule 
of  his  conscience,  or  of  his  conduct  in  the  last  de- 
cision. "  You  can  best  serve  God  by  silence,"  it  was 
reported  a  D.  D.  said  to  the  Chicago  Moody  at  the 
outset  of  his  missionary  career.  The  latter  chose  to 
listen  to  God's  voice  in  his  soul.  True:  the  fact  that 
one  is  not  able  to  secure  the  approval  of  his  brethren 
of  the  same  church,  as  to  his  intellectual,  educational 
and  spiritual  fitness  for  such  mission,  should  lead  him 
to  prayerful  re-examination  and  close  scrutiny  of  his 
supposed  qualifications  and  motives.  If  he  goes  with 
the  approval  of  the  church  of  which  he  is  a  member, 
let  it  formally  commission  him,  if  it  will,  but  let  it 
not  fetter  him  by  arbitrary  restrictions,  positive  re- 
quirements and  prohibitions,  otherwise  than  those 
which  Jesus  prescribed.  He  is  called  to  liberty,  as 
each  and  every  one  of  it  is  called  to  his.  His  Master 
is  his  lawgiver.  He  in  conscience,  in  grace,  through 
the  Spirit  is  a  law  unto  himself.  He  must  trust  God 
to  guide  him.  If  the  formal  commission  of  a  Board, 
or  a  committee  in  or  out  of  churches,  be  essential  to 
constitute  one  a  missionary — authorized  to  preach  the 
Gospel  at  home  or  abroad,  let  that  Board  be  satisfied, 
first,  as  to  his  qualifications  before  it  sends  him  forth; 
but  if  satisfied,  who  has  authorized  it  to  trammel  him 
in  the  use  of  that  liberty  which  his  Master  gave  him 
when  he  first  became  His  discij^le,  before  the  conse- 
crating hands  of  men  were  laid  upon  him?  It  should 
trust  some,  at  least,  to  the  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,   and  the    promised  presence  of  the   Master 


CHURCHES  OB  SOCIETIES — WHICH?  351 

Himself,  conjoined  with  the  providences  of  God  to 
move  and  guide  him  wisely.  If  he  be  a  man  of  God, 
he  will  give  due  heed  to  the  suggestions  and  the  ad- 
vice of  brethren  proportionate  to  their  gifts,  exper- 
ience, and  knowledge  of  his  circumstances.  But  who 
has  authorized  any  to  fetter  his  mind,  or  heart,  or 
conscience,  or  judgment  by  arbitrary  restrictions? 
Would  members  of  these  Boards — pastors  of  church- 
es at  home  think  it  just,  wise,  or  expedient  to  be  thus 
fettered  by  their  deacons  or  elders,  or  by  committees 
afar  off,  because  originally  they  were  sent  out  into 
the  harvest  field  under  their  advisement?  They — 
churches  or  their  representatives  can  counsel,  can 
pray,  can  rebuke  in  brotherly  love,  when  he  man- 
ifestly errs  or  sins, — withdraw  their  fellowship,  can  re- 
call him,  and  withhold  funds  for  his  support  when 
he  is  irreclaimable  from  dangerous  error,  or  from 
immoral  life.  Thus  there  is  a  limit  to  their  respon- 
sibility, and  there  it  ends. 
The  missionary  must 

'*  alone  determine  for  himself 

What  he  himself  alone  doth  understand! 

Heaven  never  meant  him  for  that  passive  thing 
That  can  be  struck,  and  hammer'd  out  to  suit 
Another's  taste  and  fancy. 

It  goes  against  his  nature — he  can't  do  it. 

He  is  possessed  by  a  commanding  spirit, 

And  his  too  is  the  station  of  command, 

And  well  for  us  it  is  so!     There  exist 

Few  fit  to  rule  themselves,  but  few  that  use 

Their  intellects  intelligently. — Then 

Well  for  the  whole,  if  there  be  found  a  man 

Who  makes  himself  what  nature  destined  him. 

let  it  be 

Likewise  his  privilege  to  move  and  act 
In  all  the  correspondencies  of  greatness. 


3;Vi  TlIK    CllKlsr    1\    lAl'E. 

Tlie  oracle  within  him,  that  whicli  /i-cs, 

lie  must  invoke  and  question — not  dead  books, 

Not  ordinances,  not  mould-rotted  papers."  i 

When  members  of  a  church  are  impressed  that  it 
is  their  duty  to  devote  tliemselves  to  Christian  Labor 
among  the  heathen,  and  they  desire  to  secure  in  ad- 
vance the  approval  of  their  brethren  with  the'r 
pledge  of  material  support, — not  having  confidence 
to  go  into  the  field  solely  on  their  individual  motion, 
and  to  cast  themselves  on  the  providence  of  God  for 
sustenance  and  preservation,  as  did  the  Apostles; 
those  who  are  called  to  purely  secular  avocations,  and 
have  confidence  in  the  character  and  qualifications  of 
the  candidate  for  missionary  service,  can  give  directly 
to  his  maintenance  without  any  intermediate  agency; 
the  church  itself,  if  it  will,  can  commission  and  send 
forth,  and  pledge  itself  to  more  or  less  of  a  material 
sustenance.  Many  i^rospered  ones  in  the  churches  could 
each  support  a  missionary,  send  and  receive  corres- 
pondence, remit  their  own  contributions,  or  employ 
some  trustworthy  brother  at  a  financial  center  to  do  it 
for  them,  without  any  discount  for  his  service.  Two 
or  three  in  the  same  church,  two  or  three  churches, 
if  necessary,  could  unite  for  the  support  of  one  mis- 
sionary. Over  this  bond  of  union  between  the  mis- 
sionary and  his  supporters  would  pass  and  repass 
the  electric  fire  of  love.  If  the  individual  supporters 
were  willing  to  honor  the  instrumentality  which  Je- 
sus and  His  Apostles  at  the  first  employed,  they  could 
give  to  the  church  for  the  special  missionary  pur- 
pose, as  the  Lord  had  prospered  them;  the  church 

I.     Schiller's  Wallenstein. — Coleridge. 


MASS  MEETINGS  OR  FORMAL  CONFERENCES.         353 

could  consecrate  and  send  forth  to  the  harvest  field 
the  man  of  God  evidently  called  to  it,  and  remit  the 
support  as  before;  so  that  the  widow  who  had  only 
"  two  mites,"  or  he  who  had  still  less, — nothing  pe- 
cuniarily valuable,  "only  a  prayer,'^  could  jointly  par- 
ticipate; each  would  stand  over  against  the  other, — 
the  mites  over  the  larger  gift;  the  prayer  over  the 
munificent  bequest.  Curious  questioners  and  am- 
bitious self-seekers  could  afford  to  wait  until  the  rev- 
elations of  the  eternal  world,  to  learn  which  proved 
the  most  effectual, — the  prayer  of  a  poverty-stricken 
one,  the  mites  of  the  widow,  or  the  "  ten  talents  "  of 
the  "  good  and  faithful  servant."  "  Having  then  gifts, 
differing  according  to  the  grace  that  is  given  us;"  "as 
every  man  hath  received  the  gift,  let  him  minister  the 
same  one  to  another  as  good  steivards  of  the  manifold 
grace  of  God."     Eomans  xii,  I  Peter  iv. 

But  brethren  desire  to  come  together  from  afar  to 
see  each  other  in  the  flesh,  to  take  each  other  by  the 
hand,  to  sing,  pray,  and  stimulate  each  other  to  love 
and  good  works.  Let  them  come  every  year  or  oftener 
and  have  a  Pentecostal  season.  Let  them  be  simple 
assemblages  of  brethren,  mass  meetings  of  believers 
— delegated  or  undelegated, — annual  or  semi-annual, 
for  prayer,  praise,  and  exhortation;  needing  only  a 
presiding  officer,  a  secretary,  and  a  treasurer,  2^'^o 
tempore.  These  might  take  the  form  of  local  Asso- 
ciations, of  State  Conventions,  of  National  Confer- 
ences, without  any  legislation,  or  assumption  of  the 
work  devolved  upon  the  churches. — Such  a  meeting 
was  that  recent  one  of  the  National  Council  of  Con- 

23 


354  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

gregationalists  in  Chicago.  It  was  inspiring,  full  of 
mighty  promise  for  good  in  all  lands, — a  wonderful 
manifestation  of  the  fertile  resources,  energy  and  in- 
dustry of  that  Christian  class — historically  foremofil 
in  every  good  and  sound  work  since  the  landing  on 
Plymouth  Eock.  It  was  composed  chiefly  of  clergy- 
men— evidently  directed  by  a  few — keen,  sagacious, 
and  finely  trained  to  such  organizing,  executive  work, 
— men  who  understood  the  times  and  their  needs, 
and  had  an  understanding  with  each  other. — Com- 
mittees might  be  needed  to  express  orally  or  in  writ- 
ing the  sentiments  or  the  emotions  of  the  assem- 
blage,— as  one  might  be  selected  on  special  seasons 
during  the  progress  of  the  meetings  to  offer  prayer 
to  God  on  its  behalf.  If  it  w^as  not  expedient  or  econ- 
omic, for  each  individual  contributor  to  remit  his  of- 
fering to  the  person  or  the  cause, — object  of  benefac- 
tion,— or,  in  the  case  of  foreign  missions,  to  purchase 
and  to  forward  a  draft  to  the  distant  field  of  labor, 
which,  it  is  believed,  would  be  far  more  expedient 
and  economic, — more  blessed  in  reflex  influence  on 
the  donor, — bringing  the  giver  and  the  given-to  in 
the  closest  possible  contact;  some  competent  and  re- 
liable brother  might  be  entrusted  at  financial  centers, 
thus  to  remit,  and  to  report  therefor  directly  to  each 
individual  or  church  contributor,  and  not  to  interme- 
diate societies.  When  individual  Christians  were  im- 
pressed that  it  was  their  duty  to  go  to  the  heathen, 
and  they  went  forth,  sustained  by  the  promises  and 
the  providences  of  God,  with  the  co-operating  assist- 
ance of  their  friends  who  had  faith  in  them,  what 
concern  would  it  be  of  any  or  of  all, — only  to  bid  them 


MISSIONARY  FKEEDOM  ABROAD  AS  AT  HOME.        355 

God-speed,  and  to  help  them  ?  Would  not  such  de- 
velopment of  the  missionary  spirit  and  action  be  more 
in  accordance  with  the  precepts  and  practice  of  Jesus 
and  His  Apostles?  If  churches  could  so  trust  candi- 
ddtes  for  missionary  service,  as  to  be  induced  to  set 
them  apart,  consecrate  and  officially  send  them  forth, 
they  ought  to  trust  them, — the  overruling  God  and 
the  guiding  Spirit,  while  they  are  in  the  harvest 
field.  If  the  missionaries  are  men  of  God,  they  will 
crave  the  prayers  of  their  brethren  at  home,  and  seek 
their  counsel  when  they  feel  the  need  of  it.  Why 
should  they  be  supervised  by  a  few,  thousands  of 
miles  afar, — ignorant  of  their  circumstances, — ^with 
temperaments,  mental  structure,  mental  and  spiritual 
habits  diverse  from  theirs?  Why  should  they  be 
compelled  to  run  the  evangelizing  car  in  ruts  ?  Can't 
brethren  at  home  trust  God  to  guide  His  chosen  ones 
whom  He  has  sent  forth?  Can't  they  pray  for  these 
missionaries,  and  thus  relieve  their  personal  anxieties 
about  them  ?  Can't  they  write  affectionate  letters  of 
solicitude,  of  warning,  of  brotherly  counsel  and  ad- 
monition if  need  be, — unauthoritative  and  unofficial, 
except  when  they  have  been  sent  out  and  are  sus- 
tained by  churches  ?  Having  done  all  this,  have  they 
not  reached  the  limits  of  their  responsibility?  Did 
the  church  in  Jerusalem,  or  that  in  Antioch,  trammel 
Paul  and  Silas,  or  Paul  and  Barnabas,  by  arbitrary 
directions,  restrictive  or  permissive,  as  they  went 
from  place  to  place  ?  Did  they  not  commit  theApostles, 
their  work  and  the  modes  of  doing  it,  as  became  nec- 
essary, to  the  supervisory,  overruling,  and  directing 
grace  of  God?    Did  they  not  expect  and  were  they 


350  THE   CHRIST    IN    LIFE. 

not  content  it  should  be  so, — that  the  Apostles 
should  use  the  liberty  of  jjlan  and  achievement,  to 
which  as  the  children  of  God  and  the  discij^les  of 
Jesus  they  were  called?  All  the  instructions  they 
received,  that  are  on  record,  were:  "They  departed; " 
— "being  recommended,"  literally  as  has  been  before 
noted,  having  been  given  over, — "committed"  "by 
the  brethren  unto  the  grace  of  God."  The  language 
is  significant,  and  the  example  authoritative.  When 
the  lord  of  the  servants  distributed  among  them  his 
talents  for  use,  or  the  nobleman  his  pounds,  did  either 
of  them  appoint  any  number  of  their  fellow  servants 
to  prescribe  the  modes  in  which  each  should  use 
them  ?  Did  they  not  commit  to  each  as  individuals, 
and  thus  intimate,  that  they  would  hold  them  to  strict 
personal,  individual  account  for  the  use  of  the  trust. ' 
Were  not  all  the  declarations  and  illustrations  of  Je- 
sus so  constructed  and  directed,  as  to  give  the  great- 

I.  Where  ability  is  equal,  quantity  determines  relative  merit; 
and  where  ability  varies,  then  it  is  not  the  absolute  quantity  of 
work  done,  but  the  ratio  of  the  quantity  to  the  ability,  that  ought 
to  determine  value. 

The  parable  of  the  Pounds  illustrates  the  proposition  that  when 
ability  is  equal,  quantity  determines  relative  merit. 

The  parable  of  the  Talents,  on  the  other  hand,  illustrates  the 
proposition  that  when  ability  varies,  then,  not  the  absolute  quan- 
tity of  work  done,  but  the  ratio  of  the  quantity  to  the  ability, 
ought  to  determine  value. 

The  parable  of  the  Hours  (Laborers  in  the  Vineyard)  is  to  em- 
phasize the  supreme  importance  of  motive  as  a  factor  in  determin- 
ing moral  value.  It  teaches,  in  effect,  that  a  small  quantity  of 
work  done  in  a  right  spirit  is  of  greater  value  than  a  great  quan- 
tity done  in  a  wrong  spirit. — Prof.  A.  B.  Bruce. — Parabolic  Teach- 
ing of  Christ. 


EVANGELIZATION  THROUGH  SOCIETIESo  357 

est  emphasis  and  effectiveness  possible  to  this  teach- 
ing? Did  He  purpose  to  evangelize  the  tvorld  by  cor- 
porations? Admitting,  as  all  must  admit,  that  these 
societies  during  the  last  half-century  have  done  a 
grand  kind  and  amount  of  work, — the  grandest  since 
the  Apostles;  must  it  not  also  be  admitted,  that  it 
has  been  thus  done — much  to  the  cost  and  to  the  ab- 
sorption of  the  individuality  of  participants?  and 
what  is  more  serious  and  detrimental,  to  the  loss  of 
the  recognition  and  education  of  individual  responsi- 
bility? True:  Mark  represents  Jesus,  as  sending 
forth  His  disciples  at  the  first  in  pairs;  and  the 
Apostles  subsequent  to  His  death  thus  went  together; 
still  they  went  forth  individuals,  though  in  couples; 
neither  was  individuality  nor  personal  responsibility 
blended  and  distinctively  lost  in  the  unity  of  the  par- 
ticipated work.  Provision  was  thus  made  to  meet 
their  social  necessities,  that  strength,  comfort,  and 
stimulation  might  be  mutually  imparted  under  the 
inevitable  difficulties,  dangers,  and  discouragements 
of  the  way. 

There  being  no  necessity,  as  has  been  urged,  let 
Christians  no  longer  come  together  under  the  com- 
plication of  machinery, — wheels  within  wheels  of  an- 
nual and  life  members, — of  boards,  executive  commit- 
tees and  secretaries, — of  synods,  and  presbyteries,  and 
judicatories,  to  fritter  away  time  in  the  discussion  of 
overtures,  and  deliverances,  canons,  and  endless  ques- 
tions of  ecclesiastical  law;  to  destroy  spirituality, 
weary  souls,  engender  strife,  breed  jealousy,  stimulate 
unhallowed  ambition;  more  than  all,  to  fatally  insu- 
late the  assemblages  from  the  reception  and  perva- 


358  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

sion  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  but  let  them  on  their  coming, 
give  themselves  exclusively  to  prayer,  praise  and  ex- 
hortation, interspersed  with  addresses  from  returned 
missionaries  present,  or  with  the  reading  of  communi- 
cations from  them  on  the  field,  recapitulating  the 
work  of  the  grace  of  God  in  it.  Having  had  the  good 
time;  having  been  refreshed  by  the  presence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  their  individual  hearts;  having  seen 
their  brethren  in  the  flesh;  having  joined  hands, 
thanked  God,  and  taken  courage;  having  their  faith 
strengthened;  what  remains  for  them  but  to  go  on 
their  way  home  rejoicing  to  their  respective  churches 
and  fields  of  labor;  to  communicate  the  good — the  di- 
vine impulses  they  have  received;  to  come  upon  a 
higher  plane  in  the  divine  life.  If  anything  more  is 
authorized  by  Scripture  and  a  sanctified  common 
sense,  let  the  authority  be  cited. 

But  if  it  has  been  effectually  and  conclusively 
demonstrated  by  the  experience  of  eighteen  centuries, 
that  this  work  cannot  be  adequately  done  by  church- 
es immediately  or  mediately,  singly  or  combined, 
through  their  committees  or  messengers — most  rig- 
idly restricted  to  do  only  what  they  are  commissioned 
to  do;  if  their  efficient  employment  is  hopeless;  then 
it  is  feared,  Christendom  has  been  mistaken  in  sup- 
posing that  they  were  designed  to  continue  perma- 
nent instrumentalities  for  the  spread  of  the  Gospel 
to  the  end  of  time; — that  they  were  merely  a  tempo- 
rary arrangement  for  the  purpose  during  the  Apost- 
olic era. 

There  is  only  one  escape  from  this  conclusion, — as 
IS   seen,   and   as   has  been    before    suggested;    that 


MISSION  MEETINGS  OR  CONFERENCES.  359 

is,  in  enlarging  the  interpretation  of  the  Christian 
ecclesia,  if  facts  and  philology  will  allow, — to  which 
Christian  sentiment  seems  to  be  drifting,  so  as  to  in- 
clude any  assembly  of  Christian  believers,  near  or 
afar,  baptized  or  nnbaptized,  who  have  been  drawn 
together  by  the  common  love  of  Jesus,  and  by  the  af- 
finities of  religious  belief  and  of  action  for  the  spread 
of  the  Gospel  at  home  or  abroad;  and,  consequently, 
for  their  individual  development  and  growth  in  grace. 
In  such  a  comprehending  sense,  every  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  would  be  a  Christian  church, 
and  would  be  bound  by  the  precepts  prescribed  for 
its  regimen  and  conduct  in  ecclesiastical  life.  It 
might  require,  on  admission,  assent  to  certain  ex- 
pressed fundamental  principles  of  belief,  or  to  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  undefined,  and  to  a  coven- 
ant— oral  for  each  time,  or  verbally  prescribed;  it 
might  labor  with  and  discipline  unworthy  members; 
it  might  celebrate  the  memorial  Supper  as  the  silent 
sacramenium  of  allegiance  to  their  Master.  By  the 
same  enlarged  apprehension  of  the  New  Testament 
Ideal  and  Keal;  an  Association,  a  State  Convention, 
a  National  Conference  might  be  a  Christian  church 
or  assembly, — being  constituted  and  regulated  by  the 
same  inspired  directions, — reminding  themselves 
from  time  to  time  of  their  perpetual  obligations  to 
their  Master  by  the  same  memorial  observance.  Upon 
such  an  exegesis,  all  such  assemblies  might  properly 
be  held  to  be  Christian  churches,  and  undertake  to 
execute  the  Gospel  commission — in  sending  out  mis- 
sionaries from  their  numbers  and  in  sustaining  them ; 
but  remembering  to  limit    themselves    as  did  the 


3G0  THE   (JURIST    IN    LIFE. 

brethren  of  the  church  at  Antioch  with  regard  to 
Paul  and  Silas, — "  giving  them  over  to  the  grace  of 
God;"  then  they  would  be  bound  in  all  their  proced- 
ures by  the  principles  and  prescriptions  for  the  con- 
stitution and  regimen  of  such  bodies  of  Christ, — the 
New  Testament  ecclesise.  Assuredly,  then,  all  such 
distinctions  and  classifications  of  life  or  annual  mem- 
bers upon  the  payment  of  specified  amounts  of  mon- 
ey; all  odious  and  unscriptural  assumptions  and  se- 
clusions of  positions  of  power  and  trust;  all  princi- 
ples and  practice  of  close  corporations;  all  unneces- 
sary Boards,  Executive  Committees,  and  Secretary- 
ships; all  aristocratic,  class,  and  anti-democratic  fea- 
tures would  cease  to  exist  and  to  be  employed  in  the 
Lord's  service.  The  missionary  being  commended, — 
given  over  to  the  grace  of  God;  there  would  be  no 
more  for  these  assemblages  to  do  than  to  create  in- 
terest on  his  behalf  and  in  his  mission ;  to  raise  funds 
for  his  and  its  support;  to  pray  for  him  ever,  and  to 
send  him  often  as  they  had  opportunity,  words  of 
cheer.  All  this  would  be  enough  to  occupy  their 
time  and  attention, — to  develop  and  absorb  their 
Christian  zeal  and  energy.  "Ye  know  that  they, 
which  are  accounted  to  rule  over  the  Gentiles,  lord  it 
over  them,  and  their  great  ones  exercise  authority 
over  them ;  but  it  is  not  so  among  you ;  but  whosoever 
of  you  would  become  great  among  you  shall  be  your 
servant,  and  whosoever  would  be  first  among  you 
shall  be  your  bond  servant.  For  verily  the  Son  of 
Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister, 
and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many.  Mark  x ;  42- 
45;  Lukexvii;25.     And  this  decisive  and  emphatic 


SOCIETIES  TRANSIENT — CHURCHES  PERPETUAL.    361 

utterance  of  Him — the  recognized  infallible  Teacher 
of  all,  is  deemed  elucidatory  of,  and  conclusive  upon 
the  whole  subject. 

Churches,  it  is  said,  change,  are  revolutionized, — die. 
So  do  individual  contributors  change  and  die.  On 
what,  or  on  whom  can  the  missionary  rely  after  the 
lapse  of  years? 

Whether  those  are  the  most  enduring,  which  have 
passed  through  the  conflicts  of  eighteen  centuries, 
against  which,  as  fore-declared,  the  Gates  of  Hades 
have  not  prevailed;  or  those  which  are  changeable  as 
is  public  opinion,  and  which  by  the  measure  of  the 
centuries  have  been  transient; — developing  in  antag- 
onism to  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel,  and  running  in 
their  seed  to  corruption,  as  they  always  will;  recon- 
structed but  to  come  again  unsatisfying  and  imprac- 
ticable;— never  able  to  retain  to  their  end  the  confi- 
dence of  the  people  represented. 

"One  generation  passeth  away  and  another  gener- 
ation Cometh:  but  the  earth  abideth  forever."  Many 
churches  have  survived  successive  dynasties  of  the 
nations  out  of  whom  they  were  gathered.  The  line 
of  their  succession  has  been  unbroken.  The  children 
of  the  mother  have  found  a  name  and  place  some- 
where in  every  Christian  century.  As  rivers  disap- 
pear sometimes  beneath  the  surface — to  re-appear  in 
some  distant  locality,  so  churches  have  disappeared 
to  be  visible  again  through  meandering  sons  or 
daughters  in  some  section  of  the  earth.  Thus  it  has 
ever  been.  Societies  are  of  modern  origin.  They 
have  been  reconstructed.  They  have  always  wasted 
power  in  the  necessary  and  unavoidable  friction; — 


3G2  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

absorbed  funds  for  the  divine  end  in  the  running 
gear  of  means.  Though  the  excellent  of  the  sects 
have  been  prominent  in  their  management  and  direc- 
tion, they  have  been  commonly  officered  and  wielded 
by  men  of  a  past  generation,  who  could  not  discern 
the  signs  of  the  present  or  of  the  future;  if  they  did, 

obstinately  refused  to  profit  by  the  vision,  and  to 
l;ike  a  new  departure;  men  who  did  not  keep  step 
v»  ith  Providence  because  they  were  too  busy  in  the 
conseiTation  of  machinery;  as  if  the  evangelization 
of  the  world  could  not  be  wrought  without  its  pres- 
ervation; men  who  clung  with  the  tenacity  of  death 
to  theu'  policies  and  places;  till,  society  having  ad- 
vanced— laggard  Christendom  itself — many  a  league; 
these  professedly  pioneers  in  the  world's  redemption 
were  left  behind,  forced  to  their  dissolution  or  recon- 
struction. 

The  work  on  which  the  Christian  embarks  is  not 
one  of  calculation,— as  men  ponder  whether  they  shall 
succeed  in  this  or  that  material  enterprise,  though 
judgment  as  to  times  and  places  is  to  be  exercised, — 
cold,  material  calculation  is  against  all  spiritual  suc- 
cess; but  purely  one  of  faith,  with  the  pledge  of  all 
the  forces  and  potencies  of  Omnipotence  to  guide, 
sustain,  and  to  lead  to  ultimate  triumph  to  the  extent 
of  omniscient  limitation,  not  demonstrable  on  the 
surface,  or  visible  to  the  naked  eye,  but  as 
God  is  true,  to  be  realized.  It  must  come  at  last,  and 
to  be  recognized  as  wholly  one  of  faith,  though 
the  undertaking  was  inaugurated  with  the  acclaim 
and  "  God-speed "  of  millions,  and  pushed  on  with 
the  treasures  of  earth. 


MISSION  WORK,— INDIVIDUAL— OF  FAITH.  363 

The  missionary  work  is  ecclesiastical,  and  chiefly 
individual.  The  missionary,  summoned  by  God  in 
his  soul  and  by  providences  without,  must  lean  upon 
Him  and  himself  alone  for  strength,  wisdom,  direc- 
tion,— succor  in  every  perplexity  and  trial.  He  can- 
not rely  much  on  men — only  as  God  impels  and  com- 
missions them  to  help  him.  It  is  certain,  that  he  will 
have  assured  in  advance,  the  sympathy  of  the  angelic 
host,  and  of  that  innumerable  company, — "blood- 
washed  "  who  look  down  upon  his  career  from  the 
battlements  of  Heaven  with  the  deepest  interest. 
They  will  strengthen  invisibly  but  unmistakably.  He 
must  remember  the  isolated  heroism  of  predecessors 
of  old, — have  faith  and  stamina  to  stand  alone 
when  forced  to  it, — as  did  they,  rather  than  be  recre- 
ant to  solemn,  majestic,  sublime  trust.  The  religion- 
ists of  Elijah's  time  did  not  come  with  much  alacrity, 
if  they  came  at  all  to  his  pecuniary  support;  nor  is  it 
believed  he  sought  for  it,  or  cared  for  it,  or  would 
have  had  it  on  conditions, — of  keeping  back  a  part  of 
his  messages,  or  of  toning  them  down  to  suit  the  av- 
erage sanctification  of  his  hearers.  He,  it  is  evident, 
was  not  very  popular  or  much  trusted  by  the  con- 
servative piety  of  his  time — in  that  dark,  desperate 
state  of  Israel,  with  Jezebel  and  Ahab  on  the  throne. 
He  would  not  be  a  dumb  dog,  a  time  server,  or  a 
conservative.  He  dared  to  confront  the  mightiest  as 
the  obscurest  against  God,  when  commissioned  to  go  to 
them.  He  was  a  radical,  as  all  divinely  commissioned 
preachers  will  be.  Once  his  heart  failed  him.  He 
had  his  hour  of  weakness  and  despair,  as  all  men  will 
sometimes  have,  howe'er  intrepid.     Elijah  thought 


c»()4  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

all  was  lost;  that  there  was  no  hope  for  Israel;  that 
he  only  of  the  unseduced,  un terrified  remained;  that 
courage,  fidelity,  further  constancy  were  to  no  pur- 
pose. He  was  no  better  than  his  fathers.  He  was 
human.  He  fled,  not  through  cowardice,  but  through 
despair.  When  the  i^ot  of  herbs  failed,  God  fed  him 
through  ravens;  gave  him  a  new  vision.  All  true 
prophets  must  live  and  fare  very  much  as  did  Elijah. 
Suflficient  unto  the  day. — Why  should  disciples  be 
over  anxious  for  the  morrow?  Can't  the  missionaries 
and  their  friends  trust  God?  If  not,  they  cannot,  as- 
suredly, be  called  to  such  work.  If  they  be  His  child- 
ren, they  will  be  driven  to  it  at  the  last.  He  will  take 
away  all  their  props,  bring  to  nought  all  their  confi- 
dences, prove  vain  all  their  earthly  reliances,  and 
swing  them  out  into  the  eternities  of  faith  to  be  sup- 
ported. To  such  extremity  every  chosen  soul  will  be 
brought  at  last,  whether  in  the  working  out  of  its  in- 
dividual rescue,  or  in  that  of  others  through  Christ. 

The  soul  that  on  Jesus  hath  leaned  for  repose, 

He  will  not,  He  will  not  desert  to  His  foes; 

That  soul,  though  all  Hell  should  endeavor  to  shake, 

He'll  never,— no,  never, — no,  never  forsake! 


ILLUSTRATIVE  AND  SUGGESTIVE. 


Next  to  the  originator  of  a  good  sentence  is  the  first  quoter  of  it.  — Emerson. 


Certain  social  conditions  are  necessary  for  our  higher  intuitions 
to  develop  themselves,  and  become  fully  realized  as  part  of  the  in- 
ward life  of  humanity.  Just  as  the  tree  sends  forth  its  roots  to 
gather  nourishment  from  every  side,  so  also  when  our  spiritual 
emotions  are  once  awakened,  they  seek  the  aid  and  support  of  fel- 
lowship ; — they  essay  to  strike  their  roots  deep  into  the  common 
soil  of  humanity,  and  in  this  way  to  grow  up  like  some  vast  tree 
into  full  and  perfect  proportions.  The  religious  emotions,  indeed, 
beyond  all  others,  exhibit  this  tendency.  Their  strength,  their 
tenderness,  their  whole  social  character  is  such,  that  they  produce 
the  strongest  affinities,  the  most  deeply-rooted  friendships,  the 
most  irresistible  attractions  between  minds  which  stand  upon  the 
same  stage  of  religious  impulse  and  idea,  .  .  .  it  is  only  by 
means  of  fellowship  that  the  religious  emotions  and  intuitions 
can  evolve  themselves  into  a  distinct  form  of  religion  in  the  world. 

Consider  how  far  such  virtues  as  specified  in  Gal.  v:  22,  could 
be  maintained  or  cultivated  except  in  a  state  of  social  life.  Christ- 
ianity may,  indeed,  exist  apart  from  society',  viewed  as  an  ab- 
stract system  of  doctrine  and  precept,  but  not  as  a  living  concrete 
reality  in  the  human  consciousness.  Were  the  Christian  ideas 
which  are  presented  in  the  Bible  to  exist  only  in  an  isolated  form 
in  the  mind  of  one  and  another,  without  the  aid  of  intercourse  or 
spiritual  sympathy,  they  would  be  entirely  wanting  in  that  con- 
centration which  gives  them  a  moral  power,  before  which  the 
spirit  of  humanity  bows  in  obedience  and  sacred  awe. 

Each  one  must  have  its  individuality, — and  whatever  tends  to 
•crush  this  at  the  expense  of  mere  uniformity,  will  wound  the  ten- 
derness of  pure  religious  affection,  and  quench  the  smoking  flax 

(865) 


366  THE   CHllIST   IN    LIFE. 

ere  it  ever  can  burst   forth   into  a   flame. — MordVs  Philosophy  of 
Religion. 

We  can  look,  for  the  realization  of  our  highest  social  ideal,  only 
to  the  perfecting  of  individual  character  under  the  conditions  at 
any  time  existing.  And  for  the  perfecting  of  individual  character 
we  must  rely  upon  that  increasing  sense  of  divine  omnipresence 
and  that  increasing  aspiration  after  completeness  of  spiritual  life, 
which  taken  together,  constitute  the  permanent  element  in  Christ- 
ianity.— Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy. — Fiskc. 

The  form  of  society  toward  which  we  are  progressing  is  one  in 
which  g-overnmcrtt  will  be  reduced  to  the  smallest  amount  possi- 
ble, and  freedom  increased  to  the  greatest  amount  possible ;  one 
in  which  human  nature  will  have  become  so  moulded  by  social 
discipline  into  fitness  for  the  social  state,  that  it  will  need  little  ex- 
ternal restraint,  but  will  be  self-restrained;  one  in  which  the  cit- 
izen will  tolerate  no  interference  with  his  freedom,  save  that 
which  maintains  the  equal  freedom  of  others;  one  in  which  the 
spontaneous  co-operation  which  has  developed  our  industrial  sys- 
tem and  is  now  developing  it  with  increased  rapidity,  will  produce 
agencies  for  the  discharge  of  nearly  all  social  functions,  and  will 
leave  to  the  primary  governmental  agency  nothing  beyond  the 
function  of  maintaining  those  conditions  to  free  action,  which 
make  such  spontaneous  co-operation  possible ;  one — in  which  in 
dividual  life  will  thus  be  pushed  to  the  greatest  extent  consistent 
with  social  life ;  and  in  which  social  life  will  have  no  other  end 
than  to  maintain  the  completed  sphere  for  individual  life. 

By  continued  subdivision,  what  we  call  sects  will  disappear; 
and  in  place  of  the  artificial  uniformity,  obtained  by  stamping 
men  after  an  authorized  pattern,  there  will  arise  one  of  nature's 
uniformities — a  general  similarity,  with  infinitesimal  differences, 
.  that  condition  in  which  the  individuality  of  each  may  be 
unfolded  without  limit  save  the  like  individuality  of  others;  that 
condition  toward  which,  as  we  have  just  seen,  mankind  are  pro- 
gressing ;  is  a  condition  towards  which  the  whole  creation   tends. 

All  organic  development  is  a  change  from  a  state  of  homoge- 
neity to  a  state  of  heterogeneit3\ 

The  multiplication  of  sects,  .  .  .  the  preaching  that  identi- 
ty of  opinion   should   not  be  the  bond  of  union, — the  universal 


THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  THE  SOCIETY.  367 

tendency  to  separate  thus  exhibited,  is  simply  one  of  the  ways  in 
which  a  growing  assertion  of  individuality  comes  out. — Herbert 
Sj[>encer. 

Finally,  grand  consolidations  and  massings  of  society  will  be 
gathering  heavier  momentum  and  a  more  beneficent  sway  over 
the  conduct  and  life  of  individuals.  Good  men  will  then  be  born 
by  nations — a  nation  in  a  day. — Dr.  Bushnell. 

As  society  grows  stronger,  the  individual  grows  weaker;  and 
this  will  continue  until  at  last  all  human  beings  merge  into  one 
dismal  uniformity,  and  the  whole  of  humanity  is  congealed  into  a 
hopeless  rigidity.  .  .  .  Every  political  and  every  social  change 
furthers  this  assimilation.  .  .  .  Men  must  every  where  come 
to  resemble  each  other  more  closely.  .  .  .  The  higher  life 
will  no  longer  find  countenance  or  support;  and  the  higher  minds 
will  be  cowed  and  crushed.  .  .  .  Every  expansion  of  social 
life  finally  impoverishes  the  community  by  dwarfing  the  indi- 
vidual. 

The  greatest  men  are  the  true  individuals.  .  .  .  They  are 
generally  educated  men,  and  have  a  common  stock  of  methods 
and  ideas.  They  are  men  of  wide  and  delicate  sympathy ;  they 
have  the  gift  for  entering  into  the  lifes,  for  interpreting  the 
thoughts  and  actions  of  other  men,  and  this  gift  no  man  can  have 
who  has  not  much  in  common  with  his  kind.  They  are  men 
who  understand  what  their  age  requires,  and  how  to  provide  for 
it;  they  above  all  other  men,  have  aims  common  to  one  another, 
and  common  also,  although  it  be  unwittingly,  to  all  their  contem- 
poraries. 

Individuality  generally  implies  strength,  originality,  character. 
It  also  implies  peculiarities  by  which  strength,  originality  and 
character  make  their  presence  known.  These,  men  value,  not  for 
themselves,  bvit  as  proofs  of  a  sturdy  nature. 

He  is  a  man  who  makes  his  own  life  instead  of  allowing  cir- 
cumstances and  passion  to  make  it  for  him. — Limits  of  ludividtial 
Liberty. — F.  C.  Montague. 

What  is  best  in  any  one  cannot  be  outwardly  organized,  nor 
mechanized  in  any  way,  nor  even  manipulated  to  that  end  by 
himself,  without  loss ; — his  self-communion,  his  aspiration,  his  open- 
ness jLp  ideal   suggestion;  his  personal   self-discipline;  his  mental 


368  THE   CHRIBT   IJS    LI  IK. 

freedom;  his  power  of  suspending  judgment;  his  hospitality  to 
new  thoughts  and  persons ;  his  conscience  not  subject  to  vote  or 
director,  nor  committed  to  policies  and  conformities  ;  his  sense  of 
the  value  of  his  function,  and  his  aim  to  fulfill  it  in  the  best  way, 
in  a  word,  what  goes  with  one  wherever  he  is  and  whatever  he 
does,  and  makes  the  constant  level  of  his  highest  qualities. — 
All  these  vitalities  are  unorganizable,  etc. — Freedom  in  Religion. 
— Sani'l  yolnison. 

The  initiation  of  all  wise  or  noble  things  comes,  and  must 
come,  from  individuals ;  generally  at  first  from  some  one  indi- 
vidual. 

.  .  .  the  individual's  own  mode  of  laying  out  his  existence  is 
the  best,  not  because  it  is  the  best  in  itself,  but  because  it  is  his 
own  mode  .  .  .  different  persons  also  require  different  con- 
ditions for  their  spiritual  development;  and  can  no  more  exist 
healthily  in  the  same  moral  than  all  the  variety  of  plants  can  in 
the  same  physical  atmosphere  and  climate.  The  same  things, 
which  are  helps  to  one  person  towards  the  cultivation  of  his  high- 
er nature,  are  hindrances  to  another. 

Only  through  diversity  of  opinion  is  there,  in  the  existing 
state  of  human  intellect,  a  chance  of  fair  play  to  all  sides  of  the 
truth.  .  .  .  Truth  would  lose  something  by  the  silence  of  dis- 
sentients. 

Unity  of  opinion,  unless  resulting  from  the  fullest  and  freest 
comparison  of  opposite  opinions,  is  not  desirable,  and  diversity 
not  an  evil,  but  a  good,  until  mankind  are  much  more  capable 
than  at  present  of  recognizing  all  sides  of  the  truth. 

If  all  mankind  minus  one  were  of  one  opinion,  and  only  one 
person  were  of  the  contrary  opinion,  mankind  would  be  no  more 
justified  in  silencing  that  one  person,  than  he,  if  he  had  the 
power,  would  be  justified  in  silencing  mankind. 

There  are  two  requisites  for  individuality  of  power  and  develop- 
ment, freedom  and  variety  of  situations. 

In  the  human  mind,  one-sidedness  has  always  been  the  rule, 
and  many-sidedness  the  exception.  Hence,  even  in  revolutions  of 
opinion,  one  part  of  the  truth  usually  sets,  while  another  rises. 

It  is  not  by  wearing  down  into  uniformity  all  that  is  individual 
in  themselves,  but  by  cultivating  it  and  calling  it  forth,  within  the 


THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  THE  SOCIETY.  369 

limits  imposed  by  the  rights  and  interests  of  others,  that  human 
beings  become  noble  and  beautiful  objects  of  contemplation. 

A  bureaucracy  always  tends  to  become  a  pedantocracy. — y.  S. 
Mill 

Self-assertion  is  one  of  the  elements  of  human  worth,  as  well  as 
belf-denial. — yoJni  Sterling. 

Associations  accumulate  power  in  a  few  hands;  .  .  .  a  few 
men  rule,  a  few  do  everything ;  .  .  .  a  few  leaders  can  send 
their  voices  and  spirit  far  and  wide,  and  where  great  funds  are  ac- 
cumulated, can  league  a  host  of  instruments,  and  by  menace  and 
appeals  to  interest,  can  silence  opposition.  .  .  .  An  influence 
is  growing  up,  through  widely  spread  societies,  altogether  at  war 
with  the  spirit  of  our  institutions,  and  which,  unless  jealously 
watched,  will  gradually  but  surely  encroach  on  freedom  of 
thought,  of  speech,  and  of  the  press. 

By  an  artful  multiplication  of  societies,  devoted  apparently  to 
different  objects,  but  all  swayed  by  the  same  leaders,  and  all  in- 
tended to  bear  against  a  hated  party,  as  cruel  a  persecution  may 
be  carried  on  in  a  free  country  as  in  a  despotism.  Public  opinion 
may  be  so  combined  and  influenced,  and  brought  to  bear  on  odi- 
ous individuals  or  opinions,  that  it  will  be  as  perilous  to  think  and 
speak  with  manly  freedom,  as  if  an  inquisition  were  open  before 
us.     .     .     .     They  create  tyrants  as  effectvially  as  standing  armies. 

The  surest  way  of  spreading  Christianity  is  to  improve  Christ- 
ian communities;  and  accordingly  he  who  frees  this  religion 
from  corruption,  and  makes  it  a  more  powerful  instrument  of  vir- 
tue where  it  is  already  professed,  is  the  most  effectual  contributor 
to  the  great  work  of  its  diffusion  through  the  world. 

One  good  action,  springing  from  our  own  minds,  performed 
from  a  principle  within,  performed  without  the  excitement  of  an 
urging  and  approving  voice  from  abroad,  is  worth  more  than 
hundreds  which  grow  from  mechanical  imitation,  or  from  the 
heat  and  impulse  which  numbers  give  us. 

The  essential  condition  of  intellectual  progress  is  the  resist- 
ance of  social  influences,  or  of  impressions  from  our  fellow  beings. 
— Dr.  Chajining. 

They  have  usurped  the  commission  and  powers  of  the  Christ- 
24 


370  THE   CHRIST   IN    LIFE. 

ian  Church;  they  have  invented  and  imposed  new  rules  and  terms 
of  Christian  association  ;  they  have  concentrated  Christian  influ- 
ence, to  a  great  extent,  in  the  narrow  circle  of  a  few  self-created 
managers;  and  in  consequence  of  the  new  principles  they  have 
adopted,  and  the  new  modes  of  association  they  have  prescribed, 
they  have  constructed  the  frame  of  religious  society  extensively 
upon  a  new  basis, — upon  a  basis  which  constitutes  themselves  the 
source  of  law,  and  of  all  economical  measures. — Protestant  'Jesuit- 
ism.— Harper  Bros. 

"  The  member  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  set  to  waich  his  com- 
rades, and  his  comrades  are  set  to  watch  him.  Each  must  report 
what  he  observes  of  the  acts  and  dispositions' of  the  other,  and 
this  mutual  espionage  does  not  end  with  the  novitiate,  but  ex- 
tends to  the  close  of  life.  The  characteristics  of  every  member  of 
the  order  are  minutely  analyzed,  and  methodically  put  on  record. 
.  .  .  It  not  only  uses  its  knowledge  to  thrust  into  obscurity  or 
cast  out  altogether  those  whom  it  discovers  to  be  dull,  feeble,  or 
unwilling  instruments  of  its  purposes,  but  it  assigns  to  every  one 
the  task  to  which  his  talents  or  his  disposition  may  best  adapt 
him.  .  .  .  One  great  aim  engrossed  their  lives.  'For  the 
greater  glory  of  God  ' — ad  major  cm  Dei  irloriam — they  would  act 
or  wait,  suffer  or  die,  yet  all  in  unquestioning  subjection  to  the 
authority  of  the  superiors,  in  whom  they  recognized  the  agent  of 
Divine  authority  itself." — Jesuits  iu  North  America. — Parkman. 

Out  of  the  spirit  of  Association  there  has  come,  and  there  comes 
again  and  again  from  age  to  age,  a  spirit  of  hatred  even  against 
good  itself  when  that  good  is  the  work  of  any  one  who  *'follow- 
eth  not  us."  It  is  a  force,  nevertheless,  rooted  in  the  nature  of 
man,  implanted  there  as  a  part  of  its  constitution,  and  like  all  oth- 
ers of  this  character,  given  him  for  a  purpose,  and  having  its  own 
legitimate  field  of  operation.  Nor  is  that  field  a  narrow  one.  It 
is  the  foundation  of  much  that  is  noblest  in  human  character,  and 
of  much  that  is  most  heroic  in  human  conduct. — Reign  of  Law. — 
Argyll. 

In  His  parables  upon  the  idea  of  His  kingdom  "is  no  intimation 
of  a  society  or  of  organization." 

The  Eucharist,  as  Jesus  founded  it,  is  the  most  anti-ecclesiasti- 
cal of  institutions,  pulverizing  alike  the  historic  churches  in  their 


THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  THE  SOCIETY.  371 

beauty  and  the  dissenting  sects  in  their  unloveliness; — it  is  the 
consecration  of  absolute  individualism. — Literature  and  Dogma. — 
Arnold. 

That,  Avhich  Jesus  Christ  cared  for,  was  to  change  the  inner  man 
of  each  individual,  not  to  establish  organizations  of  any  sort. — 
Dunn. — Quoted  by  Arnold. 

It  is  indeed  v^rorthy  of  remark,  how  little  the  Apostles  had  to  say  of 
the  machinery  now  supposed  to  be  so  necessary  to  the  conversion 
of  sinners.  We  read  nothing  of  the  importance  of  special  efforts 
of  this  and  that  kind ;  nor  indeed  do  we  read  much  of  direct  ef- 
forts of  any  kind,  beyond  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  and  the 
maintenance  of  regular  worship.  But  the  epistles  of  Paul  and 
and  Peter,  of  James  and  John,  are  filled  with  urgent  appeals  to 
the  church  members  to  lead  pure  lives,  and  thus  to  recommend 
the  religion  of  Christ  to  Jew  and  Gentile.  The  idea  seems  to  be, 
that  if  this  result  be  once  secured,  all  other  desired  results  would 
surely  follow. — Chicago  Advance. 

If  Jesus  came  to  found  a  church,  never  were  actions  so  at  vari- 
ance with  purposes.  There  are  no  recorded  instructions  to  this 
end.  He  remained  in  the  full  communion  of  the  Jewish  church 
to  the  last.  Nor  did  His  disciples  or  Apostles  dream  of  leaving 
the  church  of  their  fathers.  .  .  .  They  attempted  to  develop 
their  new  life  within  the  old  forms.  Little  by  little,  and  slowly, 
they  learned  by  experience  that  new  wine  could  not  be  kept  in  old 
bottles.  .  .  .  All  creeds,  churches,  institutions,  customs,  ordi- 
nances, are  but  steps  upon  which  the  Christian  plants  his  foot, 
that  they  may  help  him  to  ascend  to  the  perfect  liberty  in  Christ 
Jesus. — Beec/ier's  Life  of  Christ, 


The  letter,  alonc^  never  has  secured  the  unity  of  the  church — but 
the  unity  we  so  much  yearn  after  comes  only  through  the  devel- 
opment of  the  religious  life. — Philosophy  of  Religion. — Morell. 

No  man  can  be  in  union  with  his  fellow-men  absolutely  through 
the  medium  of  the  understanding,  for  the  understanding  itself  is 
not  alike  and  of  the  same  constant  and  absolute  quality  in  all  men. 
.  .  .  What  men  see,  they  see  through  the  color  of  the  feeling 
that  infuses  itself  into  their  thinking  faculty.  ...  If  there 
were  a  hundred  men  with  a  hundred  different  gauges  of  eye,  one 
sees  things  only  at  the  minutest  point,  and  the  next  man  a  shade 
larger,  and  the  next  man  two  shades  larger,  and  the  other  men 
clear  up  to  the  hundred,  by  constant  increments.  .  .  There 
are  certain  mathematical  truths  about  which  men  cannot  disagree  , 
they  are  absolute:  but  in  regard  to  all  moral  truths  and  social 
truths  w'here  these  feelings  must  of  necessity  come  in,  it  is  utterly 
impossible  that  men  should  absolutely  agree. — //.  W.  Beccher. 

No  existing  forms  or  creeds  are  the  best  absolutely,  but  each  of 
them  is  the  best  relatively ;  one  form,  one  creed  is  the  best  for 
one  class  of  minds, — another  form, — another  creed  is  the  best  for 
another  class  of  minds. —  J.  F.  Clarke. 

In  order  that  the  work  of  the  formation  of  a  single  church  of 
Christ  should  become  an  established  fact,  every  individual  Christ- 
ian creed  must  cast  off  everj'thing  which  has  been  introduced  by 
men,  and  restore  that  discipline  and  those  rules  which  rest  upon 
the  foundation  Christ  the  Lord  laid,  and  which  meet  the  just  re- 
quirements of  the  different  nations  and  of  the  age. — Old  Catholics 
of  Germany  to  Evangelical  Alliance. 

The  time  is  perhaps  coming,  when  all  our  present  sects  will 
live  only  in  history.  But  the  influences  of  the  gospel  will  not 
therefore  cease ;  the  church  will  not  die  with  the  sects  into  which 
it  is  broken.  .  .  .  The  simple  gospel  divested  of  human  ad- 
dition, no  longer  disfigured  by  absurd  explanation,  will  be  the 
center  and  bond  of  union  to  the  world.  The  name  of  Christian 
will  absorb  all  other  names. — Dr.  Channing. 


CHAPTEK  VII. 


THE  POSSIBLE  IN  CHKISTIAN  UNITY. 

That  they  all  may  be  one,  even  as  Thovi,  Father!  art  in  Me, 
and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  Us ;  that  the  world 
may  believe  that  Thou  didst  send  Me.  And  the  glory  which  Thou 
hast  given  Me  I  have  given  unto  them ;  that  they  may  be  one, 
even  as  We  are  One,  I  in  them,  and  Thou  in  Me ;  that  they  may 
be  perfected  into  one. — John  xvii :  si-sj. 

Other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not  of  this  fold ;  them  also  must 
I  lead,  and  they  shall  hear  My  voice.  And  they  shall  become  one 
flock,  one  shepherd. — yolm  x:  i6. 

Till  we  all  shall  attain  unto  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  full  grown  man,  unto  the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ. — Ej>/i.  tv:  jj. 

Through  all  diversity  in  matter  or  mind  there  is 
unity.  Through  religion,  whether  revealed  in  the 
spiritual  constitution  o£  men, — in  the  written  Word, — 
the  external  world,  by  the  Spirit, — general  history,— 
daily  providences  and  individual  experiences,  there 
runs  this  golden  thread  of  unity.  Not  that  individ- 
uality is  or  ever  will  be  destroyed,  or  that  diversity 
in  individual  constitution,  education  and  environ- 
ment will  ever  cease;  but  that  there  will  be  unity  in 
heart,  in  will,  in  the  great  essentials  of  belief.  The 
declarations  and  prayers  of  Jesus,  the  injunctions  of 
the  Apostles  are  a  revelation  of  God's  intent  and  a 
prophecy  of  its  coming  realization. 

(373) 


iU-i  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

The  differences,  dissensions  and  strifes  of  Christ- 
ian disciples  since  the  advent  of  their  Master  have 
indeed  been  wide  and  great.  These  had  their  origin 
in  part  from  the  diversities  specified,  but  chiefly,  it  is 
believed,  from  the  selfishness  and  ambition  of  the 
sects  themselves,  or  of  the  individual  sectarians  who 
led  and  manipulated  them. 

Notwithstanding  these  variances,  as  must  be  ad- 
mitted, there  has  been  a  substantial  oneness  respect- 
ing the  nature  and  attributes  of  God,  His  manifesta- 
tion in  Jesus,  the  helplessness  of  men;  the  necessity 
of  their  renovation  through  God's  spirit;  the  eternal 
existence  of  the  soul;  future  accountability ;  salvation 
through  grace  upon  Godly  contrition;  a  place  or 
state  of  rewards  and  punishments. 

Indications  are  now  apparent,  that  Christian  sects, 
sundered  by  the  logomachies  of  nineteen  centuries, 
have  reached  the  extreme  of  theological  divergence, 
and  have  commenced  the  final  swing  to  unity; — unity 
with  diversity  it  is  repeated,  for  no  considerate  per- 
son can  expect  that  there  ever  will  be  realized  among 
Christian  believers  mathematical  or  literal  unity, — 
complete  oneness  in  faith,  belief  or  practice,  senti- 
ment or  emotion,  where  no  two  of  them  will  be  orig- 
inally made  or  educated  alike,  or  developed  under  the 
same  circumstances  or  conditions.  But  what  is  pos- 
sible and  to  be  expected  is,  that  Christian  disciples 
will  see  eye  to  eye  in  the  essential  elements  of 
Christianity,  as  they  more  accurately  apprehend  them, 
especially  when  the  main  source  of  this  separation 
and  estrangement, — the  bane  of  Christianity  and  the 
insurmountable  barrier  to  uuion — selfishness  and  un- 


THE  COMING  UNITY  POSSIBLE.  375 

sanctified  ambition  are  repressed.  Christian  sects  can 
be  as  selfish  as  individual  worldlings  or  society  at 
large.  They  can  become  more  intense,  bitter  and 
fierce  in  bigotry  from  their  proneness  to  presume, 
that  their  zeal  is  born  from  above. 

It  must  be  discerned  that  there  is  a  strong  advance 
of  enlightened  Catholicism  to  a  liberalized  Protest- 
antism. The  revolt  of  Pere  Hyacinthe,  Bishop  Dol- 
linger  and  his  adherents  from  the  decree  of  Papal  in- 
fallibility and  other  Roman  dogmas,  is  a  protest  Eis 
radical  and  decisive  as  that  of  the  father  of  modern 
Protestantism,  though  of  a  milder  type,  and  is  one  of 
the  great  signals  of  the  movement  of  Christendom  to 
unity.  The  Catholic  church  with  all  her  errors  and 
corruption,  it  must  be  confessed,  is  the  mother  of  the 
Western  churches,  though  by  mere  historical  descent, 
— through  whom  most  modern  sects  have  come,  and 
some  of  whose  errors  and  corruptions  they  to  this 
hour  retain.  It  has  been  orthodox  to  interpret  her, 
and  to  denounce  her^  as  the  "  Man  of  Sin,"  and  the 
Anti-Christ  of  the  Scriptures.  But  it  is  believed,  her 
chief  doctrines, — not  with  respect  to  the  Papacy  or 
its  assumptions, — the  Priesthood  and  ritual  service, 
are  essential  elements  of  Christianity  theoretic  and 
practical;  while  there  are  others,  for  which  no  war- 
rant in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  and  His  Apostles  can 
be  found.  Her  gross  errors  in  teaching  and  practice; 
the  excessive  stress  and  reliance  placed  upon  works 
without  rectifying,  purifying  faith  in  God;  the  cheap 
absolution  thereupon  proffered  to  the  sinner; 
the  mummery  of  forms;  the  millinery  of  ser- 
vice; the  homage  to  the  wafer  and  the  picture;  spec- 


:>7()  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

tficular  exhibitions  to  impress  the  sensuous,  and  to 
sway  the  superstitious;  the  bloody  track  which  her 
devotees  have  left  in  history  need  not  be  specified 
in  this  connection,  and  are  all  admitted.  Still:  there 
may  yet  be  a  few  at  least,  it  is  believed  there  are 
many  names  among  her  whose  garments  have  not  yet 
been  defiled, — enough  to  partially  entitle  her  to  the 
revered  name  of  a  Christian  church, — though  not  in 
New  Testament  order  and  development; — not  alto- 
gether to  be  branded  as  a  "synagogue  of  Satan," 
though  not  exclusively  the  Christian  church, — local 
or  universal,  idealized  and  realized  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment— the  new  Jerusalem  descending  out  of  Heaven. 
Now:  O  Protestant  of  the  Protestants!  O  Puritan  of 
the  Puritans!  clamoring  "for  the  general  union  of 
total  dissent:"  *  if  thou  art  disposed  to  recalcitrate 
against  such  charitable  admissions  which  thou  de- 
nouncest  loosely  liberal ;  where  is  that  body  of  Christ- 
ian believers,  and  what  is  the  name  it  bears,  which 
can  justly  assume  and  appropriate  exclusively  to  itself, 
the  hallowed  name  of  the  Christian  church  ? 

From  the  first,  it  must  be  admitted,  she  has  taken 
the  rude,  the  ignorant  and  the  superstitious,  compos- 
ing the  masses  of  the  world,  from  savageism  and  deg- 
radation and  lifted  them  up  on  a  higher  plane  of  civ- 
ilization; evangelizing  them  in  a  measure  externally; 
sometimes,  it  is  feared,  she  has  enervated  and  en- 
slaved them,  as  in  Ireland;  but  she  may  justly  be  re- 
garded as  a  Providential  instrument  for  the  spiritual 

I.         Their  belief— =-a  believins^  in  nothing  at  all. 

Or  something  of  that  sort;  I  know  they  all  went 
For  a  general  union  of  total  dissent. 

—^as.  R.  LozvelL 


CATHOLICISM  AND  PROTESTANTISM.  377 

elevation  of  low  grades  of  men, — preparing  them  to 
be  received  and  discipled  in  the  school  of  a  higher 
and  purer  Christianity.  The  soul,  of  high  or  low 
grade,  cultured  or  untaught,  must  have  a  religion,  a 
God  and  a  service  to  Him  for  the  satisfying  of  its  as- 
pirations. The  mighty  in  intellect,  the  potent  in  po- 
sition, thinkers,  scholars,  princes  who  have  adhered 
to  her,  have  done  so  in  part  from  social  or  political 
considerations,  because  their  soul-wants  and  aspira- 
tions demanded  aliment  and  some  measure  of  satis- 
faction, and  they  could  not  find  it  elsewhere;  and 
since  in  her  communion,  accusations  from  God  and 
their  consciences  might  be  met  more  easily  by  proxy 
in  confession.  The  religious  element  in  every  nature 
must  have  a  medium  for  development,  service  and 
worship.  But  these  dignitaries  of  thought,  position 
or  office  have  been  and  are  too  intelligent  and  dis- 
cerning to  rely  exclusively  upon  her  instrumentality 
as  means  of  grace  for  salvation.  Well  they  must 
have  known,  that  the  "spermaceti  for  an  inward 
bruise" — the  accusings  of  a  guilty  conscience,  the 
consciousness  of  helplessness  as  individual  sinners; 
— the  sovereign  balm  for  every  wound  of  their  souls 
was  not  there, — in  the  "Holy  Catholic  Church" — 
Ultra  or  Intra-montane,  or  in  any  body  of  fallible 
men,  but  in  One  alone — able  to  save  to  the  uttermost. 
As  intelligent  Catholics  come  into  fuller  light,  truer 
conceptions  of  God,  see  clearly  that  rectification,  and 
hence  ultimate  salvation  are  by  faith  in  that  Saving 
One,  not  independently  in  any  human  merit, — are 
born  from  above,  and  bring  forth  the  corresponding 
fruits  of  the  new  life;  they  will  graduate  from  it. 


378  THE   CHRIST   IN    LIFE. 

slough  off  their  effete  ecclesiastical  garments,  and  as- 
sume the  new  symbols  of  righteousness,  or  remain  to 
purify  the  old  church  as  Hyacinthe  and  Dollinger 
have  been  doing 

TJie  skeptic  must  admit  thaf  Protestantism  with 
all  its  defects  in  theory  and  practice,  as  an  expo- 
nent of  Christianity  is  in  advance  of  Catholicism; 
yet  the  former  in  endeavoring  to  avoid  some  Cath- 
olic errors,  has  fallen  into  their  opposites.  And  some 
of  the  pioneer  sects,  instead  of  sloughing  off  the 
exuvias  of  the  Papal  church  they  emerged  from,  re- 
tain to  this  hour  portions  of  its  ecclesiastical  vesture, 
— having  made  little  or  no  progress  for  three  centu- 
ries under  the  light  of  the  Spirit's  revelations  upon  the 
"Word;  they  stand  where  they  first  stood  at  their  birth 
in  the  Lutheran  Kef ormation ;  indeed,  wings  of  them 
have  retraced  their  steps,  are  on  the  high  road  back- 
ward, and  close  to  Kome;  or  are  switching  off  to 
the  arid  sands  of  unbelief.  Some  in  the  advance 
are  rapidly  approaching  in  creed,  and  much  in  prac- 
tice to  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  knowledge  of 
the  Son  of  God — "  unto  a  fully  developed  man,  unto 
the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ," 
— giving  themselves  unrestrainedly  to  the  enjoyment 
of  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God.  But 
the  hallucinations  of  the  intellect  must  not  be  mis- 
taken for  the  voice  of  God, — the  revelations  of  the 
Spirit  in  their  souls.  They  are  to  be  tested  in  some 
court  of  aj:)peal, —  the  "law  and  the  testimony" 
without  and  the  "Word  within, — that  which  was  in- 
tended to  be  of  universal  and  perpetual  authority,  not 
the  local  and  temporary  interwoven,  and  there  must 


PREDISPOSITION  TO  DIFFERING  CREEDS.  379 

be  penetration  and  discernment  to  separate  one  from 
the  other.  Among  the  more  advanced  of  the  Protes- 
tant sects,  there  is  doubtless  more  theoretic  ortho- 
doxy, less  ecclesiastical  heresy  with  some  than  with 
others.  No  one  of  them  can  be  said  to  embody  all 
Gospel  truth,  especially  in  its  symmetry;  much  less, 
has  it  attained  to  the  purity  of  ecclesiastical  living 
up  to  its  own  standard,,  and  still  less  as  individual 
members,  to  a  very  high  degree  of  righteous  living  in 
their  church,  or  in  the  world.  No  one  of  them  can 
hold  itself  up  with  propriety  as  a  New  Testament 
model  for  all  the  rest.  That  must  be  left  for  the  ob- 
servation and  judgment  of  their  scrutinizing,  intelli- 
gent, discriminating  neighbors.  To  their  own  Master, 
they  must  stand  or  fall.  Each  must  determine  and 
answer  for  itself. 

There  are  wide  differences  in  the  composition  and 
in  the  administrative  life  of  churches  of  the  same 
faith  and  order  in  the  same  city, — from  the  circum- 
tances  of  their  origin,  the  original  or  succeeding  el- 
ements of  leavening  and  of  control,  the  mental  or 
educational  character  of  the  pastors.  Discipline  has 
been  faithful  or  lax.  That  which  has  been  nutriment 
for  one  class  of  minds,  temperaments,  cultivated  or 
uncultivated,  has  been  none  to  others.  Those  who 
were  not  edified  or  supposed  they  could  not  be,  left 
and  sought  for  edification  elsewhere.  During  a  single 
pastorate,  the  elements  both  of  church  and  congrega- 
tion have  been  entirely  revolutionized,  their  relative 
position  and  control  changed.  There  will  be  elective 
affinity  in  believers.  Like  will  run  to  like.  There 
is  a  radical  difference  in   church   administration   as 


38(1  THE   CHRIST    IN    LIFE. 

well  as  in  church  theory.  Some  churches  theologic- 
ally deficient  or  heterodox,  according  to  the  prevail- 
ing standard  of  their  denomination  may,  on  the  whole, 
approach  nearer  to  the  ideal  perfection  of  the  Christ- 
ian church  in  ecclesiastical  living,  through  faithful 
administration,  than  others  adjudged  to  be  more  cor- 
rect in  literal  faith  and  covenant.  There  are  some 
pastors  with  constitutional  or  educational  bias  towards 
the  Calvinistic  scheme,  others, — to  the  Arminian. ' 
Notwithstanding  education  otherwise,  original  pre- 
disposition sways.  No  fact  in  psychological  history 
is  more  evident. 

It  is  truthful  and  proper  to  say,  that  some  brains 
by  original  conformation  are  better  adapted  for  re- 
ceiving, apprehending  and  appreciating  some  sides 
or  aspects  of  theological  truth,  more  than  others. 
Doubtless,  theology  has  its  Calvinistic  and  Ar- 
minian side.     But  one  class  of  mind  cannot  without 

I.     Men  are  really  born  Calvinists  or  Pelagians,     •  eith- 

er Aristotelians  or  Platonists,  .  ,  .-  materialistic  or  spiritual- 
istic, logical  or  philosophical,  argumentative  or  intuitional,  .  . 
skeptical  or  sympathetic  and  receptive ,  rigid  and  narrow  or  com- 
prehensive, catholic  and  free,  .  .  .  admire  the  harder  sterner 
virtues,  or  are  won  by  the  nobler,  gentler,  finer  qualities  of  the 
soul,  .  .  .  limit  themselves  to  the  senses  and  to  the  range  of 
the  understanding  and  to  what  can  be  submitted  to  its  processes 
and  decisions,  or  they  love  to  ascend  to  the  region  of  the  super- 
sensual,  and  covet  intensely  the  higher  revelations  of  a  discip- 
hned  faith.  The  two  orders  are  ever  ranged  on  opposite  sides  in 
theology^  in  philosopliy  and  in  real  life  — John  Toung. 

I  knew  a  witty  physician  Avho  found  the  creed  in  the  biliary 
duct,  and  used  to  affirm  that  if  there  was  disease  in  the  liver,  the 
man  became  a  Calvinist,  and  if  .that  organ  was  sound,  he  became 
a  Unitarian. — Emerson, 


VARIETIES  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  DISPENSATION.      381 

doing  violence  to  original  predisposition,  dispense 
the  Arminian  side  of  the  Truth;  nor  another,  the 
Calvinistic:  hence  the  main  source  of  theological  dif- 
ferences and  of  dissensions, — the  many  sects  perpet- 
uated beyond  necessity,  as  is  believed,  through  the 
selfishness  as  well  as  the  inherent  one-sidedness  of 
the  sects  themselves. 

The  churches  themselves  assimilate  to  their  priest- 
hood,— "like  priest,  like  people."  Some  magnify  and 
lay  stress  upon  denominational  peculiarities  and  re- 
quirements; others  are  lax  in  the  exposition  and 
enforcement  of  the  church-creed.  Some  are  vigilant 
and  rigid  in  the  reception  of  members,  others  are 
loose  and  superficial.  Some  cleave  with  tenacity  to 
the  Shibboleth — and  traditions  of  their  fathers.  Oth- 
ers cut  loose  from  sectarian  restraint, — striving  to 
keep  abreast  with  the  light  that  is  ever  and  increas- 
ingly blazing  upon  Biblical  truth  and  human  duty — 
out  of  the  revelations  of  science,  of  Providence  in 
history  and  of  the  Spirit  in  personal  experiences. 
They  profess  to  aim  to  reach  the  consciences  of  men, 
to  touch  their  souls,  to  do  them  good.  They  fish  for 
men.  Some  are  High  Church  and  Eitualists ;  others, 
Low  Church  and  Evangelical.  There  are  right  and 
left  wings  in  every  denomination.  Some  preachers 
are  declaimers  and  exhorters, — they  cannot  be  any- 
thing else.  Others  are  thinkers  and  logicians.  Some 
denominations  and  their  clergy  go  to  seed  in  doctri- 
nal rigidity/  in  "  earnest  contention"  for  certain  dog- 
mas and  practices  which  they  assume  to  be  pre-emi- 

I.  The  O.  S.  Presbyterian  church  is  dying  of  rigidity,  said  one 
of  its  p.  D's,  at  one  of  its  denominational  gatherings. 


382  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

nently,  "  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints  " — their 
interpretations  and  traditions  tacked  on.  Their  God 
is  a  stone  Jupiter,  and  they  themselves  are  stony- 
hearted to  men.  Others  make  philanthrophy, — whicli 
may  or  may  not  have  a  God  and  a  Savior  in  it,  the  sub- 
stance of  the  Gospel,  and  of  their  ecclesiastical  life 
Shall  disciples  of  unlike  mental  structure,  tempera- 
ament,  culture,  theologic  predisposition  or  prefer- 
ence, spiritual  necessity,  be  forced  to  receive  their 
aliment  from  their  antipodes,  because  they  bear  the 
same  ecclesiastical  name?  Nay,  verily.  Let  there  be 
liberty.  There  must  be  among  the  children  of  God — 
disciples  of  Jesus,  freedom  to  elect  or  reject. 

There  is  the  same  diversity  in  temperaments,  gifts, 
graces,  culture,  habits,  tastes  and  necessities  among 
members  of  the  same  church.  Some  are  by  nature, 
bold,  decisive,  incautious,  self-confident  and  reliant. 
Others  are  timid,  careful,  shrinking,  self -distrusting. 
Churches  may  have  their  Peters,  Pauls,  Johns, 
Thomases,  and  a  Judas.  When  souls  pass  through 
the  regenerating  process,  their  characters  are  more 
or  less  transformed  in  time;  but  grace  works  no 
miracle  in  the  substitution  of  one  temperament  or 
predisposition  for  another;  often,  natural  character- 
istics are  wonderfully  modified,  sometimes  intensified, 
frequently  kept  in  duress  by  discipline  and  experi- 
ence,— the  self-confident  becoming  diffident,  and  the 
timid  self-reliant. 

The  Devil  soon  discerns  the  point  of  weakness  in 
the  citadel  of  every  soul,  and  is  ready  with  the  requi- 
site appliances  for  entrance.  Many  therefrom  have 
been  brought  nigh  to  ruin,  if  not  to  utter  desolation. 


THE  ENDURANCE  OP  JOB.  383 

Sinful  occasions  have  proved  for  the  purification  and 
fortification  of  other  tried  souls.  Having  become 
fore-conscious  through  bitter  experience  of  the  point 
of  weakness  in  the  time  of  danger,  they  have  been 
led  to  summon  the  entire  forces  of  God,  and  of  their 
own  being  for  help  in  such  time  of  need.  Thus  as 
Christian  warriors  they  have  been  specially  fortified 
through  grace  at  these  joints  of  weakness.  Many  a 
Christian,  doubtless,  has  been  suffered  to  tumble 
from  such  unfortified  heights  into  depths  of  sin,  that 
he  might  be  forewarned  and  forearmed  against  a  fu- 
ture plunge  into  ruin.  God,  it  is  evident,  suffers  His 
children  to  be  tried  that  they  may  be  indurated  for 
effectual  resistance  to  evil.  Round  it  the  battle  rages 
fiercest  and  strongest,  till  the  poor  soul,  if  it  has  but 
once  yielded  or  has  been  self-reliant,  is  forced  to  cry 
out:  Lord!  save  me  from  the  consequences  of  my 
folly,  or  I  must  perish. 

"  Ye  have  heard  of  the  patience  of  Job," — that  is, 
his  suffering  endurance  to  the  end, — not  always  pa- 
tience. There  was,  indeed,  sublimity  in  it.  It  is 
proverbial  to  all  time.  The  story  is  doubtless  true — 
in  dramatic  form.  The  calamities  were  extraordinary 
and  cumulative  in  a  brief  period.  Job  became  res- 
tive, insubordinate,  insubmissive, — fierce  even  in  his 
complainings  at  the  height  of  his  troubles, — reveal- 
ing in  him  the  infirmity  common  to  all  when  laid 
bare.  It  is  difficult  for  a  soul  with  little  or  much 
faith, — having  been  favored  with  a  large  measure  of 
worldly  prosperity  and  with  a  consciousness  of  the 
divine  favor,  to  be  otherwise  than  serene.  How  much 
the  manifestation  of  ordinary  faith,  even,  is  contin- 


384  THE   CHlilST    IN    LIFE. 

gent  on  sound  bodily  condition,  freedom  from  anx- 
iety, inward  peace  flowing  like  a  river,  auspicious  sur- 
roundings! Many  well-to-do  worldlings,  as  well  as 
well  as  heavenlings  manifest  exuberance  of  a  certain 
species  of  faith  under  such  circumstances.  The  Devil 
was  right;  he  knew  if  he  could  be  allowed  scope,  op- 
portunity and  sway,  he  could  get  Job  on  the  hip: 
"Doth  Job  fear  God  for  nought?  Hast  thou  not 
made  an  hedge  about  him,  and  about  his  house,  and 
about  all  that  he  hath  on  every  side?  Thou  hast 
blessed  the  work  of  his  hands,  and  his  substance  is 
increased  in  the  land!"  A  soul,  we  say,  with  large 
or  small  measures  of  grace,  under  such  inspiriting 
conditions,  cannot  be  otherwise  than  buoyant.  Oc- 
casions are  always  the  Devil's  opportunities,  and  he 
will  not  fail  to  make  the  most  of  them.  Who, — what 
believer  will  not  be  exuberant  in  faith,  buoyant  in 
hope,  when  all  things  go  well  with  him?  Job  began 
well  in  the  reception  of  the  first  installment  of  the 
Devil's  calamitous  assaults.  "The  Lord  gave,  and 
the  Lord  hath  taken  away;  blessed  be  the  name  of 
the  Lord."  "What?"  said  he  to  his  refractory,  re- 
cusant spouse,  "  shall  we  receive  good  at  the  liands  of 
God,  and  shall  we  not  receive  e^dl?"  But  as  his 
troubles  cumulated  and  their  billows  began  to  roll 
over  him,  he  staggered,  ominously  wavered  before 
the  Devil  got  through  with  him.  His  feet  were  al- 
most gone.  His  steps  had  well  nigh  slipped.  He 
cursed  the  day  of  his  birth.  Then  broke  into  the 
bitterest  complainings,  remonstrances,  and  protesta- 
tions. Suffering  gave  them  intensity  and  amplifica- 
tion.    Never  was  such  a  tide  of  passionate  utterance 


THE  UNIFYING  POWER  OF  GRACE.  385 

poured  forth.  It  was  human.  It  was  nature.  He 
held  fast  his  integrity,  yet  surely  his  faith — basis  of 
all  patience,  wavered,  was  almost  if  not  "clean  gone" 
for  a  moment  in  his  extremity. 

"The  man  Moses  was  very  meek  above  all  the  men 
who  were  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,"  by  which  we 
are  to  understand  that  he  became  such  through  grace. 
Surely  he  was  not  constitutionally  the  most  patient, 
the  humblest  and  the  gentlest  of  men.  He  shrank 
from  going  into  the  presence  of  Pharaoh  at  the  com- 
mand of  Jehovah  to  organize  and  to  head  the  Exodus 
of  his  people.  "Who  am  I?"  "O  my  Lord!  I  am 
not  eloquent.  ...  I  am  slow  of  speech  and  of  a 
slow  tongue."  At  the  outset  he  was  presumptuous, 
daring.  He  slew  the  Egyptian, — hasty  to  run  before 
sent,  and  in  his  disappointment  and  consciousness  of 
inappreciation  fled  to  the  land  of  Midian,  where  he 
remained  many  years,  till  Jehovah  summoned  him 
decisively  to  his  work.  He  certainly  was  by  consti- 
tution very  choleric — tempestuous  in  wrath.  Grace 
never  entirely  subdued  the  inflammatory  tendency. 
"His  anger  waxed  hot,  and  he  cast  the  Tables  out  of 
his  hands  and  break  them  beneath  the  mount,"  as  he 
beheld  the  idolatry  of  the  children  of  Israel. 

Jacob,  to  his  maturity,  relied  on  his  characteristic 
subtlety,  craftiness,  policy,  shreAvdness,  management, 
duplicity,  selfishness  and  self-seeking  for  material 
success.  He  attained  it,  but  the  day  of  visitation 
came  as  it  comes  to  all — especially  the  self-seeker. 
The  hour  of  hours  to  him  this  side  of  death  he  had 
striven  so  many  years  to  avert — to  escape  had  come, 

25 


38G  THE   CmilST   IN    LIFE. 

and  he  had  to  face  it  and  to  bide  its  results:  his  many 
herds  and  the  retinue  of  wives  and  children,  men-ser- 
vants and  maid-servants,  passing  on  before  him,  sys- 
tematically gi-ouped  from  the  least  valuable  to  the  dear- 
est, would  be  flimsy  interposition  to  the  anticipated, 
dreaded  alternative.  Encounter  Esau,  his  wronged 
brother,  he  must.  There  could  be  no  evasion  now. 
Stratagem  was  useless,  devices  at  an  end,  deception 
vain.  It  was  life  or  death  for  him  that  night.  Thus 
it  is  with  every  transgressor  when  he  is  compelled  to 
face  his  retributive  hour.  Alas  poor  soul!  he  must 
have  known  it  would  prove  a  feeble  barrier;  he  fled 
from  it  himself  as  the  shades  of  night  came, — aban- 
doning his  herds,  servants,  wives  and  childi-en,  so 
sagaciously  pre-arranged,  to  the  tender  mercies  of  an 
exasperated  brother,  as  God  might  permit  or  restrain, 
— rather  cowardly,  it  seems,  unless  it  was  purely  for 
uninterrupted  communion  with  his  God; — he  retired 
or  fled  over  the  ford  Jabbok,  where  he  wrestled  all 
night  for  deliverance  and  prevailed.  Thereafter  he 
was  a  changed  man.  He  turned  from  self  to  God. 
O  poor  Jacob!  what  would  have  become  of  thee  and 
of  thy  calculating,  unjustly  discriminating  mother? 
what  would  become  of  the  multitude  like  thee  in 
every  generation,  were  it  not  for  regenerating,  sancti- 
fying, sovereign  grace?  Such  natures  are  justly  re- 
pulsive to  the  world,  but  grace  can  save  even  such 
at  the  last  hour. 

David,  in  certain  sanctified  elements  of  will,  love, 
magnanimity, — out  of  such  a  refractory  race, — by 
contrast,  for  his  time  and  relatively,  was  a  man 
after  God's  heart     Yet  when  under  the  sway  of  his 


UNIFICATION  OF  JOHN,  PETER  AND  PAUL.  387 

lower  elements,  and  Satan  had  possession,  his  deflec- 
tion from  right,  goodness,  justice  was  appalling, — 
reeking  of  Gehenna  itself.  Dost  thou  rail  at  him,  as 
if  he  was  totally  a  confederate  of  evil,  and  not  in  the 
major  portion  of  his  life  an  ally  of  good?  Read  the 
Fifty-first  Psalm,  and  consider  what  thou  art  thyself, 
and  what  most  probably  thou  would'st  be,  unrestrained 
in  thy  passions, — given  over  for  a  season  only  to  the 
possession  of  the  Devil,  at  such  an  age  and  in  such  a 
position.  Perhaps  thou  would'st  have  become  a 
bloodthirsty  Nero, — with  such  power  place,  environ- 
ment. 

John  was  the  "disciple  whom,"  it  is  said,  "Jesus 
loved " — for  whom  He  had  a  special  affinity,  for  He 
loved  all.  This  fact  in  conjunction  with  the  peculiar 
structure,  ever-pervading  tone  of  his  Gospel  and 
Epistles,  has  created  the  impression  that  he  was  by 
nature  the  most  amiable  and  attractive  of  men:  the 
revolution  and  transformation  wrought  by  grace 
through  the  discipline  of  many  years  has  not  been 
considered:  the  introduction  to  John  is  as  Jesus  left 
him  and  as  grace  elaborated  him:  the  fact  is  over- 
looked, that  he  was  in  fact,  by  nature,  a  "son  of 
thunder " — swayed  by  ambition  and  self-seeking  as 
was  his  mother — another  Bebekah;  that  in  the  no- 
vitiate of  discipleship,  even,  he  was  ambitious  to  have 
assigned  him  a  right  or  left  hand  place  in  the  antici- 
pated material  kingdom  of  his  Master;  that  even 
then,  with  his  brother,  he  would  have  impulsively 
called  down  fire  from  Heaven  to  destroy  a  village  of 
the  Samaritans,  because  they  would  not  receive  and 


388  THE   CHRIST   IN    LIFE. 

hospitably  entertain  the  disciplehood  on  their  way  to 
Jerusalem. 

Simon  became  the  steadfast,  loyal  Peter  from  the 
impulsive,  fitfully  self-reliant  but  unstable  son  of 
Jonas.  Saul,  from  the  furious,  uncharitable,  straight- 
laced  bigot  of  Tarsus, — "a  Pharisee,  the  son  of  a 
Pharisee,"  became  the  magnanimous,  royal-hearted, 
tolerant  Paul.  But  he  took  with  him  his  natural  zeal 
into  the  kingdom,  intensified  by  grace,  but  disci- 
plined, attempered,  circumvested  and  pervaded  by 
love. 

Thus  grace  modifies.  It  transforms,  sanctifies, 
stimulates,  restrains,  symmetrizes,  new-directs,  exalts. 
Experiences,  adversities,  trials  work  conjointly  in  the 
line  of  the  gracious,  sanctifying  work.  Illustrations 
are  abundant  in  history.  Washington  was  naturally 
self-willed,  obstinate,  and  when  roused,  tempestuous 
and  ungovernable  in  his  wrath.'  He  became  self- 
controlled,  persistent,  patient  under  exhausting,  long- 
protracted  tests  and  exigencies. 

In  the  recognition  of  such  various  idiosyncrasies  in 
physical,  mental  or  moral  constitution,  such  diversi- 
ties and  inequalities  in  education,  it  must  be  said, 
that  though  there  cannot  be  expected  or  realized 
Here  a  mathematical  unity  in  thought  or  expression, 
even  in  regard  to  a  divinely  crystallized  statement, 
yet  believers  may  approximate  measurably  to  it,  and 
in  the  great  essentials  may  be  able  to  "see  eye  to 
eye,"  and  certainly  be  one  in  apprehension  of  those 

I.  Being  interrupted  once  in  his  devotions  by  an  importunate 
knocking  at  his  chamber,  it  is  said  he  arose  and  thrust  his  sword 
through  the  panel  of  tlie  door. 


NO  UNION  IN  SHIBBOLETH.  389 

"two  commands  on  which  hang  all  the  law  and  the 
prophets;"  in  recognition  of  Jesus  as  the  Savior  of 
men — the  hope  of  the  world;  in  dependence  upon 
the  Spirit  as  supreme  in  all  attempts  to  edify  one's 
self  or  to  evangelize  others;  in  fellowship  with  all 
the  good  on  earth  and  the  glorified  in  Heaven;  in  all 
the  hopes  and  promises  of  the  Gospel;  in  prayer  and 
praise  to  Him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne,  and  to  the 
Lamb  forever.  There  ought  to  be  a  present  realiza- 
tion of  such  unity.  It  ought  to  be  manifested  to  the 
world.  It  exists  to  a  greater  extent  than  generally 
supposed.  It  wants  only  combination  and  expression. 
But  the  Christian  sects  must  take  up  some  of  the 
skandala  out  of  the  way, — they  are  not  necessarily 
such,  but  they  are  so  held  and  made.  If  they  aspire 
for  a  closer  union  in  doctrinal  expression  as  well  as 
in  fellowship  of  heart  and  purpose,  they  must  test 
the  literal  accordance  of  their  creed  with  the  literal 
statements  of  the  Scripture.  To  the  law  and  the  tes- 
timony must  they  go, — not  to  traditions  or  the  exe- 
geses of  the  early  or  the  later  Fathers, — not  at  all  to 
human  standards,  or  to  the  contemporaneous  opinions 
and  predilections  of  theii  church  dignitaries:  all, 
for  which  they  cannot  find  a  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord," 
— a  divine  intimation  or  lawful  inference,  they  must 
unhesitatingly  discard.  They  must  reconstruct  and 
constantly  keep  reconstructing,  as  more  light  breaks 
in  upon  God's  Word,  profiting  by  the  wisdom  of 
American  citizens  in  the  frequent  reconstruction  of 
their  civil  governments.  When  this  reduction,  this 
pruning  process  is  faithfully  performed,  there  will  be 
little  left  of  their  idolized  "  articles  of  faith,"  beyond 


890  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

a  very  few  elementary  statements.  There  will  be  no 
metaphysical  subtleties  about  the  moral  ability  or  in- 
ability of  God  or  men;  perhaps, — nothing  about 
God's  decrees  in  the  presumptuous  and  dogmatic  stat(i- 
ment  of  them,  since  it  is  questionable  whether  He 
Himself  has  given  any  such  literal  expression  or 
enumeration  of  them.  Men  should  not  undertake  to 
intrude  upon  or  to  supplement  the  silence  of  God. 

In  such  excessive  attachment  to  the  frame  work  of 
a  Christian  church,  and  the  machinery  of  its  govern- 
ment— with  regard  to  which,  little  is  revealed  in  the 
New  Testament  beyond  the  statement  of  simple  facts, 
is  the  great  obstacle  to  such  unity  as  is  possible  of 
realization,  not  merely  in  pertinacious  adherence  to 
either  Calvinistic  or  Arminian  shibboleth,  or  any 
theological  subtleties,  not  Scripturally  affirmed.  What 
is  a  church?  What  is  a  Bishop  or  a  Pastor,  an  El- 
der or  a  Presbyter?  Are  they  different  names  for  the 
same  office, — often  used  interchangeably  to  designate 
the  same  person  according  to  age  or  special  station  ? 
Should  local  churches  delegate  to  external  bodies 
any  of  their  prerogatives  and  duties  ?  Have  the  lat- 
ter Scriptural  authority  for  their  organizations?  Is 
each  local  church  independent  in  its  sphere  of  action 
of  every  other?  What  is  Baptism?  Is  it  immersion 
or  pouring,  or  sprinkling,  or  each  and  all  indiffer- 
ently? What  is  the  etymological  meaning  of  the  de- 
fining word?  What  was  the  primitive  practice  illus- 
trative of  it?  What  is  its  relation  to  the  individual 
believer  or  to  a  church?  Who  are  its  proper  sub- 
jects,— believers  exclusively,  or  unconscious  babes 
and  unconverted  children  also?  and  that  by  sprink- 


LOVE  CONDUCES  TO  UNITY.  391 

ling  on  the  faith  substitute  of  their  parents?  What 
is  the  relation  of  Baptism  to  the  Lord's  Supper?  Is 
the  recipiency  of  the  first  precedent  and  pre-requisite 
for  participation  in  the  last?  Was  its  observance  in- 
tended to  be  perpetual,  and  of  binding  obligation 
upon  every  future  believer? 

Some  find  an  easy  solution  of  such  interrogatories  in 
the  etymology  of  the  defining  or  describing  words, 
in  conjunction  with  the  context  and  with  primitive 
practice.  Others  do  not.  Yet  there  might  exist  all 
these  differences  of  belief  and  varieties  of  ecclesias- 
tical life, — provided  they  were  intelligently  and  con- 
scientiously held,  and  did  there  prevail  between 
dissentients  the  highest  unity  of  love,  fellowship, 
prayer  and  praise. 

No  light  as  yet  has  come  upon  the  Written  Word — 
God  inspired,  which  has  relieved  zealous  Christian 
students  of  it  from  literal  obedience  to  those  exter- 
nal requirements  enjoined  upon  primitive  believers. 
True:  sects  are  in  danger  of  heeding  more  the  shad- 
ow than  the  substance,  the  symbol  than  the  reality. 
"Scrupulosity — about  laws  positive,"  says  F.  W. 
Kobertson,  "generally  slides  into  laxity  about  the 
eternal  laws  of  right  and  wrong."  But  it  might  be 
expected,  that  those  scrupulous  in  the  observance  of  an 
external  requirement,  would  be  no  less  careful  to 
obey  the  moral  precept  thus  illustrated.  The  history 
of  religionists  shows  the  contrary.  It  has  been  easier 
to  proffer  money,  anything  materially  valuable, — the 
service  of  the  body,  or  "  the  calves  of  the  lips " — 
Hosea  iv:  2,  than  to  give  the  heart.  The  first  im- 
presses— is  more  satisfactory  to  a  worldly  self-compla- 


392  THE   CHRIST   IN    LIFE. 

cency;  the  latter  is  not  seen  of  men, — is  known  only 
to  God. 

There  is  no  external  act  in  religious  service  more 
solemn  and  impressive; — there  could  not  be,  as  it 
seems,  a  more  beautiful  and  significant  symbol  of 
death  and  burial  to  sin,  and  of  resurrection  to  a  new 
life,  than  the  Baptism — the  immersion  in  pure  water 
of  the  body.  Who  but  Jesus  could  select  or  recon- 
secrate one  so  significant?  How  careful  then  should 
churches  and  administrators  be  in  the  administration 
to  those  alone,  who  evidently  have  become  new  cre- 
ations in  Christ;  that  in  the  selection  of  the  occasion, 
the  arrangement  of  the  service,  the  remarks  offered, 
there  be  no  Pharisaic  exhibition  of  denomina- 
tional self-complacency,  no  eye  or  end  for  artistic  or 
dramatic  effect;  that  the  act  be  left  to  speak  for  itself, 
as  speak  it  will,  in  the  befitting  silence  for  the  most 
part  of  the  administrator;  and  especially  without  the 
pedagogism  of  lexical  and  historical  citations  at  the 
water's  side. 

To  those  substantial  and  efficient  disciples — ear- 
nest contenders  for  certain  elements  of  the  faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints,  fruitful  in  good  works,  recog- 
nized great  powers  under  their  Master  in  the  Chris- 
tianization  of  the  world; — to  those  who  are  constrained 
— conscientiously  witliout  doubt,  to  apply  water  to 
the  foreheads  of  their  little  ones  in  conjunction  with 
their  dedication  to  God;  the  inquiry  would  be  pressed 
with  as  much  delicacy  as  fidelity  to  the  truth  will 
allow,  whether  it  would  not  be  promotive  of  Chris- 
tian unity,  and  a  removal  of  one  of  the  barriers  to  the 
same,  if  they  would  designate  that  application  by  a 


ACTS  SHOULD  BE  ACCURATELY  DEFINED.  398 

term  etymologically  definitive  of  the  act  performed, 
or  by  some  other  becoming  appellative,  than  to  mis- 
apply to  it  a  name  selected  and  consecrated  by  the 
Master  to  define  a  different  act — as  its  etymology  and 
all  attendant  circumstances  of  its  use  indicate,  and 
that  act  with  respect  to  believers  alone? 

As  professedly  they  do  not  attach  much  import- 
ance to  Baptism;  regarding  it  merely  as  a  "  form,"  a 
" sign,"  a  " seal,"  a  "sacrament;"  and  that  "  a  drop  of 
water  is  as  good  as  an  ocean,"  according  to  their  in- 
terpretation and  for  their  purpose;  it  is  again  pressed, 
why  can  they  not,  from  regard  to  the  tender  con- 
sciences, the  honest  convictions  of  those  who  cleave 
to  the  letter  and  the  practice  of  the  N.  T.,  and  for  the 
sake  of  unity  they  love  so  well,  drop  the  use  of  the 
word  "  I  baptize  "  in  the  formula  as  they  administer, 
and  substitute  therefor  the  word  dedicate;  "I  cZed- 
tca/e  thee?"  Or,  if  they  must  employ  a  word  includ- 
ing a  watery  application  of  some  sort,  take  one  which 
somewhat  definitely  expresses  the  kind  of  applica- 
tion: I  sprinkle,  bedew  or  moisten,  or  I  rantize, 
cheize  or  pour  thee  ?  Then  their  dissenting  breth- 
ren, though  they  cannot  find  any  warrant  or  author- 
ization in  the  Word  of  God  for  such  practice  to  such 
subjects,  as  have  not  the  great  scholars  of  the  world, 
— their  own  included  and  conspicuous,  would  regard 
the  application  of  the  immersed  digitals  of  the  con- 
secrator  to  the  thus  rantized  or  sprinkled  foreheads 
of  the  dear  little  ones,  as  perhaps  a  harmless  act,  and 
the  dedication  of  the  babes  themselves  as  precious, 
becoming  and  commendable  on  the  part  of  the  Chris- 
tian parents.      In  their  recognition  of  parental  re- 


394  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

sponsibility  and  the  potency  of  education ;  in  their 
aspirations  and  earnest  efforts  for  the  early  conver- 
sion of  their  children ;  in  their  vigilance  to  preserve 
them  from  the  bias  and  virus  of  what  they  deem  to 
be  error;  they  are  examples  to  those  who  are  right- 
eously scrupulous  to  execute  positive  commands  ac- 
cording to  the  letter,  but  may  not  be  as  vigilant,  perhaps, 
in  attention  to  the  eternal  moral  precept,  and  as  well, 
a  positive  injunction  forever.^ 

To  that  comprehensive  class  of  "Liberals" — so 
styled,  many  of  them  pillars  of  orthodoxy, — in 
clear,  radical  and  sound  thinking, — embracing  many 
wise  men  after  the  flesh,  many  mighty,  many  noble 
of  the  earth,  trying  to  keep  the  ten  commandments 
unaided  for  the  remainder  of  their  lives,  if  with  the 
rest  of  the  sects,  they  have  not  been  able  to  do  so 
"from  their  youth  up;" — who,  to  the  credit  of  their 
original  or  Christianly  acquired  magnanimity,  in  as- 
serted freedom  from  bigotry,  —from  sectarian  or  per- 
sonal bias,  are  willing  to  unite  with  all  who  are  in  a 
church  or  out  of  it, — ready  even  "  for  a  general  union 
of  total  dissent,"  let  it  be  said: 

— There  is  no  saving  efficacy  or  salvation  in  mere 
union  external  or  internal. 

— A  union  on  a  lullaby  of  sailing  thereafter  on  a 
smooth  sea,  and  that  all  will  be  well  in  the  end,  is,  as 

I.  It  I  go  to  those  who  believe  in  immersion  and  say:  "Do 
you  really  think,  that  it  makes  any  difference,  when  one  is  bap- 
tized, whether  he  goes  under  the  water  or  is  sprinkled  ?"  they  say  : 
"It  makes  no  difference  so  far  as  the  mere  effect  on  the  individual 
is  concerned ;  but  if  Christ  said  go  under  the  water,  the  obedience 
or  disobedience  makes  a  great  deal  of  difference."  Well:  I  cannot 
get  away  from  that.     They  have  got  me  there. — H.    W.  Beecher. 


"  LIBEBAL  "  LULLABY,  "  ALL'S  WELL  "—NOT  SAFE.   395 

is  believed,  an  enchantment, — a  fearful  snare  and  de- 
lusion. 

— Trust  in  its  dulcet  tones  which  dull  the  sense  of 
guilt,  lull  a  troubled  conscience  to  sleep,  and  drown 
the  voice  of  God  in  the  soul  is  perilous. 

— All  is  not,  and  will  not  be  well  to  any  one  with- 
out previous  realization  of  helplessness,  and  of  de- 
pendence on  the  Omnipotent  One  alone  to  save. 

— God  is  not  exclusively  or  partially  the  sentimental 
Being,  the  unstable  and  unreliant  One,  that  men  are, 
under  the  frenzy  of  their  pitying  and  sympathetic 
emotions. 

— He  indeed  pities,  and  to  the  infinite. 

— But  justice  is  the  inflexible  attribute  of  His  na- 
ture, the  basis  of  His  character, — of  His  paternal 
dealings.  The  goodness  of  God  is  but  the  obverse  of 
His  severity.  Many,  most  men  are  "  persuaded  "  by 
His  "  terror  "  when  they  will  not  be  by  His  love. 

— Retributive  consequences  cannot  be  stayed.  Can 
they  ever  ceaseto  travel  somewhere,  to  affect  some 
one,  or  some  thing? 

— Pity  is  not  the  last,  determining  arbiter  of  the 
destiny  of  the  transgressor.  There  must  be  an  end 
to  her  intermediation,  to  her  beseeching  tones,  earn- 
est advocacy,  in  some  juncture,  at  some  crisis,  on  some 
occasion, — Here  or  There! 

— Justice  in  administration,  to  the  sinning,  unre- 
penting,  unreconciled,  is  condemnation, — "  the  other 
half  of  crime,"  the  "  undying  worm,"  and  "  the  un- 
quenchable fire  "  of  penalty,  which  may  be  nought  else 
than  simple  consequence  inseparable  from  ante- 
cedence. 


396  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

— There  must  be  an  end  of  dispensation, — of  this 
eon,  when  right  will  be  triumphant  and  the  truth 
prevail.  What  will  become  of  wrong  doers  and  fal- 
sifiers of  the  truth  ?  The  memory  of  the  just  shall 
be  blessed,  but  the  name  of  the  wicked  shall  rot. 

— If  they  would  be  content  to  pass  on  in  their 
"  liberal "  way  of  endeavoring  to  make  themselves  ac- 
ceptable to  God,  and  to  secure  the  heavenly  inheritance, 
not  suffering  themselves  to  be  perturbed,  should  their 
so-called  orthodox  brethren  excel  them  in  external 
zeal  and  missionary  activity,  though  not  perhaps  in 
"esthetic  "  "culture"  and  Christian  doing  for  the  ne- 
cessitous immediately  around  them  and  not  afar  off,  and 
if  they  are  not  recognized  by  them  as  being  in  good 
standing  on  their  evangelical  platform, — it  would  be 
well.  God  is  their  judge,  not  their  fallible  brothers  of 
other  faith.  The  declaration  of  Jesus  comes  thundering 
adown  the  centuries  to  them,  as  to  all  the  sects: 
"Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  except  a  man  be 
horn  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 

Were  it  not  for  the  courage  and  the  independence 
of  a  few  clear-headed  and  sharp  pioneers  of  thought 
in  every  generation,  there  would  be  no  progress  in 
theological  or  other  science.  Men  would  be  in  bond- 
age to  the  belief  of  their  ancestors  or  predecessors, — 
to  their  present  shibboleths. 

Discussions,  deviations,  enlargements,  modifica- 
tions, supplements,  restatements,  reconstructions  are 
not  only  discouraged,  but  condemned — deemed  pre- 
sumptuous, if  not  blasphemous  by  the  Pharisees  of 
every  time,  are  exposed  to  the  anathema  maranatha 
of  the  plagues  pronounced  upon  those  who  add  to  or 


FEOM  NON-CONFORMITY  TO  UNITY.  397 

subtract  "from  the  words  of  this  book"— that  is, 
their  interpretation  of  it.  He  who  will  ever  assert 
and  maintain  his  right  to  think  for  himself, — keep 
himself  free  while  in  sectarian  bonds, — with  mind 
uplifted  and  heart  open  ever  to  the  light  that  may 
break  in  upon  them,  may  expect  to  lose  caste,  forfeit 
standing  in  his  sect.  He  must  be  content  to  wait 
until  he  has  gone  for  apprehension  and  appreci- 
ation, if  it  ever  comes  this  side  of  the  heavenly  ad- 
justment. No  ostracism  is  bitterer  than  the  ecclesi- 
astical or  the  social.  The  excommunication  of  the 
Jews  or  of  the  Papal  church,  the  exclusions  of  the 
Hindoo  castes  have  been  terrible  enough;  but  the 
ecclesiastical  taboo  of  Protestant  sects  has  been  no 
less  bitter, — to  upright,  conscientious,  sensitive  souls 
— bitter  as  death  itself.  How  much  must  WicklifPe 
and  Tyndale,  the  host  of  the  earlier  and  later  reform- 
ers and  non-conformists, — Luther  and  Bunyan — their 
contemporaries  or  successors  have  suffered! 

Each  age  will  have  its  religious  recusants  and 
non-conformists,  who  become  so,  not  merely  from 
constitutional  refractoriness,  but  from  enlightened 
judgments  and  consciences, — men  who  are  discerning 
and  intelligent  beyond  their  time,  and  upon  whom, 
therefore,  will  be  placed  the  ecclesiastical  and  social 
ban  of  the  sects,  with  which  from  principle,  predilec- 
tion, affinity  or  choice  they  have  affiliated.  Each 
succeeding  generation  will  build  and  garnish  the 
sepulchers  of  the  good  men  whom  their  ecclesiastical 
predecessors  stoned  or  crucified.  Let  a  clergyman 
or  a  prominent  layman  of  any  denomination  at  the 
present  day  dissent  from  the  concreted  shibboleth  of 


398  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

the  sect,  or  even  from  its  fossilized  and  obsolete  phra- 
seology; deviate  at  all  from  its  exegesis  or  limitatioD; 
undertake  to  give  it  expansion  or  fresh  application; 
to  slough  off  any  effete  features — secretly  believed  in 
many  hearts  to  be  unscriptural  as  well  as  antagonis- 
tic to  a  sanctified  reason  and  common  sense;  let  them 
even  be  independent  in  thought  or  action  beyond  the 
"  received  version "  of  the  denominational  faith  or 
polity;  let  them  refuse  to  be  yoked  into  the  usurj)a- 
tion  of  external  instrumentalities  over  the  churches; 
and  they  will  be  lively  and  mercilessly  stoned 
in  the  modern  way  by  the  Pharisees  of  the  sect,  pelt- 
ed vigorously  by  the  editorial  slings  of  the  ofiicial 
scribes.  Unsanctified  stoning  by  malicious  misrep- 
resentation and  abuse  it  will  be  characteristically, 
rather  than  the  cannonade  of  scripture  and  logic. 
Stones  have  always  been  the  weaponry  of  bigots. 
Frequently  a  stiletto  will  gleam  through  an  editorial 
paragraph.  Heroes  in  thought  and  expression  are 
passing  off  the  stage  every  day,  who  were  once  com- 
pelled to  pass  through  the  gantlet  of  the  Pharisaic 
stoning  of  those,  who,  if  they  still  linger  on  the  earth, 
thrust  themselves  in  as  chief  mourners  at  their 
funerals. 

John  Eobinson  left  a  precious  legacy  to  those  as- 
piring for  Christian  union,  for  a  closer  fellowship 
among  believers,  in  the  familiar,  oft-repeated  utter- 
ances, two  and  a  half  centuries  since, — ever  to  be  re- 
curred to  with  profit:  "If  God  reveal  anything  to 
you  by  any  other  instrument  of  His,  be  as  ready  to 
receive  it,  as  ever  you  were  to  receive  any  truth  by 
my  ministry,  for  I  am  verily  persuaded,  am  very  con- 


MOEE  LIGHT  COMING  ON  GOD's  WORD.  399 

fidentf  that  the  Lord  has  more  truth  yet  to  break 
forth  out  of  His  holy  Word." 

Said  old  John  Cotton  of  Boston:  "For  a  church 
to  prescribe  its  profession  of  faith  to  their  posterity — 
to  be  a  form  and  pattern  unto  others,  sad  experience 
hath  shown  what  a  snare  it  hath  been.  Therefore, 
if  a  church  finds  that  it  has  incorporated  into  its  *  Ar- 
ticles of  Faith '  some  dogma  not  warranted  by  the 
Scriptures,  it  is  not  only  the  right  but  the  duty  of 
that  church  to  amend  the  objectionable  formula.  In 
my  serious  judgment,  those  who  set  up  in  the  church 
any  form  of  words  which  are  not  the  very  words  of 
inspiration,  as  a  form  that  shall  never  be  changed, 
are  responsible  for  setting  up  an  idol  in  the  house  of 
God — especially  if  that  form  is  prescribed  as  the  in- 
flexible form  in  which  every  candidate  for  Christian 
fellowship  must  make  profession  of  his  personal 
faith." 

Though  some  of  the  sects  may  have  more  ecclesias- 
tical truth  in  them  than  others,  and  each  one  has 
something  valuable,  perhaps  Scriptural  which  anoth- 
er has  not,  there  cannot  be  with  propriety  any  boast- 
ting,  any  self-gratulation,  any  confident  vaticination 
therefor.  Such  exhibition  is  offensive  to  the  Chris- 
tian spirit.  The  celebration  of  centenary  periods  of 
existence  is  profitable  for  review  and  stimulus,  pro- 
vided the  expression  takes  shape  in  the  tone  of  these 
declarations :  "  What  hath  God  wrought ! "  "  Hith- 
erto hath  He  helped  us."  "  We  thank  Thee,  and  will 
take  courage."  "Not  unto  us,  but  unto  Thee,  O 
Lord!  be  all  the  glory."  "Make  all  one  that  love 
Thee,"     ^*  Work  through  all  Thy  people  for  the  speedy 


400  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

evangelization  of  the  world." — Otherwise  it  is  sectarian 
folly. 

If  the  principal  evangelical  sects  desire  a  larger 
unity  in  the  Christian  family,  they  must  call  a  halt 
in  their  methods  of  evangelization.  AVhat  is  their 
common  procedure?  When  a  new  field,  Home  or 
Foreign  opens,  forthwith  each  representative  Mission 
society  dispatches  to  it  an  agent  or  a  laborer, — if  to 
the  Foreign,  with  funds  for  the  erection  of  buildings, 
the  translation  of  the  Bible  into  the  native  tongue, 
when  one, — the  joint  product  of  the  best  scholars  in 
all  the  denominations  on  the  field  would  be  suffi- 
cient.^ In  a  new  town  or  village  of  the  Home  field, 
even  if  there  are  not  over  a  thousand  persons  in  it, 
each  sect  hastens  to  be  represented  in  it  by  a  mis- 
sion or  a  church.  Thereupon,  all  the  families  therein 
are  scoured  by  collectors  for  contributions  towards  the 
erection  of  a  chapel  or  a  meeting  house,  and  for  oth- 
er auxiliary   appliances.     Then  succeed  periodically 

I.  No  less  than  nineteen  [there  are  twenty-two]  varieties  of 
Christianity  are  at  present  trying  to  convert  the  Japanese.  The 
nineteen  do  not  agree  as  to  what  the  ministry  is,  nor  as  to  the 
Word,  some  including  the  Apocrypha,  and  others  discarding  it  al- 
together; and  many  differing  as  to  the  Scriptures.  Nor  are  they 
agreed  as  to  the  Sacraments. — So  too,  on  doctrine,  discipline  and 
worship.  There  are  all  sorts  of  contradictions  of  belief.  Now: 
if  Christians  with  eighteen  centuries  of  accumulated  tradition 
cannot  agree,  how  can  we  expect  the  heathen  to  solve  the  great 
riddle? — Rev.  Dr.  Hopkins^  a  High  Churchman. — Quoted  by  H. 
W.  Beccher. 

There  are  in  England  ninety-nine  different  persuasions  exclu- 
sive of  twelve  kinds  of  Baptists,  and  thirteen  kinds  of  Wesleyan 
Methodists,  making  in  all  124  sects,  supporting  among  them  all 
20,000  places  of  worship,  churches  and  chapels. 


UNITY  IN  HOME  AND  FOKEIGN  WOKK.  401 

various  printed  circulars  for  kindred  purposes.  If 
regular  services  are  maintained  on  each  Sunday,  the 
church-going  population  is  divided  into  squads,  and 
every  Christian  believer  is  expected  to  attend  those 
which  represent  his  sectarian  belief,  whether  the  min- 
isterial deliverances  meet  his  intellectual  or  spiritual 
necessities  or  not.  Indulgence  of  liberty  in  attendance 
elsewhere  is  not  expected,  and  if  taken,  is  at  the  peril 
of  being  branded  as  recreant  to  the  principles  of  the 
sect  with  which  he  has  affiliated.  Of  course,  if  dis- 
ciples of  the  Christ  were  shut  up  to  this  method  of 
evangelization,  there  might  be  no  question  as  to  their 
duty.  But  are  they?  Is  it  necessary  that  there  should 
be  so  many  representative  Missionary  Societies  or 
Boards,  so  many  sectarian  places  of  worship  ?  If  there 
must  be,  for  instance,  separate  departments  of  Home 
and  Foreign  labor  in  the  evangelical  denominations 
of  these  United  States — though  the  work  is  one  and 
the  same,  why  cannot  all  these  Societies  and  Boards 
be  combined  into  one  or  two?  Then,  a  host  of  super- 
numerary officials  might  be  relieved  and  relegated  to 
other  individual  work  to  which  they  might  be  called, 
— in  their  own  or  more  destitute  regions,  and  a  vast 
amount  of  money  be  saved  for  the  combined  and  uni- 
ted work,  and  Heathendom  as  well  as  nominal  Chris- 
tendom be  spared  the  humiliating  spectacle  and  the 
perplexity  of  witnessing  a  number  of  evangelical  de- 
nominations scurrying  for  the  primary  occupation 
of  a  field,  and  for  the  propagation  of  their  peculiar 
tenets — relating  chiefly  to  externals, — important  of 
course  in  their  place  and  order,  while  the  great  doc- 

26 


402  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

trines  of  grace  and  salvation  through  Jesus  the 
Christ  ai'e  made  secondary  and  subsidiary,  and  are 
overshadowed. 

On  the  opening  of  a  new  Home  field,  why  cannot 
Christian  believers  in  it, — or  if  not  able  pecuniarily, 
why  cannot  believers  abroad  unite  with  them  in 
building  one  substantial  meeting-house,  adequate  for 
present  and  prospective  congregations  in  the  near 
future,  and  make  provision  that  ministers  representa- 
tive of  each  denomination  may  successively  occupy 
its  pulpit  each  Lord's  day;  and  thus  the  varied  spir- 
itual wants  and  necessities  of  the  community  be  re- 
spectively met?  Then,  Christian  believers  in  it  wxDuld 
not  be  divided  and  segregated  into  small  squads,  and 
not  be  burdened  with  debt  for  chapels;  then,  they 
would  not  be  compelled,  periodically,  to  make  pecuniary 
appeals  to  their  own  congregations,  to  others,  and  to 
the  community  at  large  for  help  in  cancelling  the 
debts  incurred,  in  paying  ministerial  salaries,  in  meet- 
ing the  current  expenses  of  their  enterprises. 

But  it  is  replied,  that  distinguishing  tenets  are  held 
to  be,  by  those  embracing  them,  important  if  not  es- 
sential elements  of  faith  required  to  be  "  earnestly 
contended"  for,  as  well  as  any  other  teaching  inclu- 
sive of  the  Scriptural  doctrines  of  grace  and  salvation. 
Would  there  not  be  thus  afforded  ampler  opportuni- 
ties for  the  advocacy  and  "earnest  contention"  on 
behalf  of  such  tenets,  before  larger  audiences, — for  it 
is  to  be  presumed,  the  hearers  would  not  be  confined 
on  the  allotted  Sundays  to  those  families  who  hold 
or  are  favorably  disposed  to  them? 


ILLUSTRATIVE  AKD  SUGGESTIVE. 


Next  to  the  originator  of  a  good  sentence  is  the  first  quoter  of  it. — Emerson, 


The  letter  can  never  serve  as  a  standard  for  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity— the  two  are  altogether  incommensurable — the  letter  alone 
in  fact,  never  has  secured  the  unity  of  the  church— but  the  unitv 
we  so  much  yearn  after  comes  only  through  the  development  of 
the  religious  life  .  .  .the  spirit  of  Truth  interpreted  by  Di- 
vine aid,  and  perceived  through  the  awakened  religious  conscious- 
ness of  true  believers  is  the  real  and  essential  revelation. — Morell. 

The  heretics  in  civilization,  not  to  speak  of  theology  have  done 
most  for  the  world. 

The  only  teacher  who  can  expect  to  preside  over  a  united 
school  is  Euclid,  but  even  Euclid  would  soon  find,  that  if 'there 
were  two  methods  of  drawing  a  straight  line,  his  school  would  be 
broken  up  into  two  parties. — F.  W.  Robertson. 

For  the  improver  of  natural  knowledge,  skepticism  is  the  high- 
est of  duties,  blind  faith  the  one  unpardonable  sin. 

The  mental  power,  which  will  be  of  most  importance  in  your 
daily  life,  will  be  the  power  of  seeing  things  as  they  are  without 
regard  to  authority,  and  of  drawing  accurate  conclusions  from 
particular  facts. 

No  educational  system  can  have  a  claim  to  permanence,  unless 
it  recognizes  the  truth  that  education  has  two  great  ends  to  which 
every  thing  else  must  be  subordinated.  The  one  of  these  is  to  in- 
crease knowledge ;  the  other  is  to  develop  the  love  of  right  and 
the  hatred  of  wrong. — Huxley, 

In  the  case  of  any  person  whose  judgment  is  really  deserving 
of  confidence,  how  has  it  become  so.?  Because  he  has  kept  his 
mind  open  to  criticism  of  his  opinions  and  conduct. 

The  steady  habit  of  correcting  and  completing  his  own  opin- 
(403) 


404  THE   CHRIST   IN    LIFE. 

ion  by  collating  it  with  those  of  others,  so  far  from  causing  doubt 
and  hesitation  in  carrying  it  into  practice,  is  the  only  stable  foun- 
dation for  a  just  reliance  on  it. —Mill  07i  Liberty. 

He,  in  whom  the  love  of  truth  predominates,  will  keep  himself 
aloof  from  all  moorings  and  afloat. — Emerson. 

Catholicism  will  soon  be  scarred  and  seamed  by  great  schisms; 
the  days  of  Avignon,  of  the  Anti-Popes,  of  the  Clementists  and  the 
Urbanites  are  about  to  return.  The  Catholic  church  will  see 
another  sixteenth  century,  and  yet,  notwithstanding  its  divisions, 
it  will  remain  the  Catholic  church.  It  is  not  probable,  that  foe  a 
hundred  years  to  come,  the  relative  proportions  of  Protestants, 
Catholics  and  Jews  will  be  materially  varied.  But  a  great  change 
will  be  accomplished,  or  at  least,  people  will  become  sensible  of 
it.  Every  one  of  these  religious  families  will  have  two  classes  of 
adherents;  the  one  believing  simply  and  absolutely  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  middle  ages,  the  other  sacrificing  the  letter  of  the  law 
and  maintaining  its  spirit.  In  every  communion,  this  latter  great 
class  will  increase ;  and  as  the  spirit  draws  together  quite  as  much 
as  the  letter  separate,  the  spiritually-minded  of  each  faith  will  be 
brought  nearer. 

Catholicism,  with  the  majority  of  those  who  go  back  to  it, 
is  not  so  much  the  collection  of  credences  vast  in  extent  and  in- 
finite in  detail  that  fills  the  volumes  of  a  theological  treatise,  as  it 
is  religion  in  its  general  sense.  Among  the  neophytes  who  at- 
tach themselves  to  it  most  zealously,  there  are  few  who  seriously 
think  of  the  dogmas  they  embrace ;  when  these  dogmas  are  ex- 
plained to  them  literally,  they  reject  them,  or  fritter  them  awav 
by  agreeable  interpretations ;  nearly  all  are  heretics  without  sus- 
pecting it.  They  are  brought  back  to  the  church  by  the  eternal 
instinct  which  leads  man  to  attach  himself  to  a  religious  creed — 
instinct  so  imperious,  that,  rather  than  rest  in  doubt,  he  accepts 
blindly  the  faith  that  he  finds  ready  made. 

Ah!  we  must  be  careful  how  we  think  that  God  has  left  that 
old  church  forever.  She  will  renew  her  youth  like  the  eagle;  she 
will  flourish  again  like  the  palm ;  but  the  fire  must  purify  her ; 
her  earthly  supports  must  be  broken  ;  she  must  repent  of  having 
trusted  too  much  in  the  flesh. — Renati. —  The  Future  of  Religion. 

A  consistent  Roman  Catholic  is  a  man  "  who  has  had  the  back- 


THE  POSSIBLE  IN  CHRISTIAN  UNITY.  405 

bone  of  his  conscience  broken,  and  to  break  the  backbone  of  the 
conscience  is  to  break  the  backbone  of  faith." — Bam^ton  Lec- 
tures^ iSyg. 

You  shall  hear  from  some  politic  supporter  of  religious  estab- 
lishments :  "  Between  ourselves,  these  churches  and  parsons  and 
all  the  rest  of  it  are  not  for  sensible  men,  such  as  jou  and  I ;  we 
know  better ;  we  can  do  without  all  that ;  but  there  must  be  some- 
thing of  the  kind  to  keep  the  people  in  order. — Herbert  Spencer. 

For  there  is  a  true  church  wherever  one  hand  meets  another 
helpfully,  and  that  is  the  only  holy  or  mother  church,  which  ever 
■w^s,  or  ever  will  be. — Ruskin. 

The  Unitarian  faith  offers  no  battle  to  worldlings,  flings  down 
no  challenge  to  music,  art,  literature,  the  drama,  engages  in  no 
deadly  conflict  with  formalism,  ritualism  or  ceremonialism ;  has 
in  fact,  no  well  defined  foe ;  it  does  not  toil  to  save  men  from 
hell,  for  it  believes  in  no  hell  of  flame  and  everlasting  torment ;  it 
does  not  toil  to  get  men  into  heaven,  for  it  believes  in  no  such 
heaven  as  men  can  be  "  got  into."  The  salvation  of  souls  is  hardly 
its  object,  for  it  does  not  put  the  issue  between  salvation  and  dam- 
nation with  sufficient  sharpness  to  engage  the  consecration  of  the 
will.  The  social  improvement  and  elevation  of  men  is  not  its 
object,  for  it  has  no  working  philosophy  of  social  life.  There  are 
ideas  enough  in  it,  but  it  lives  in  ideas,  and  like  the  giant  Antaeus 
languishes  there. 

Some  say  the  Radical  belief  is  but  a  heap  of  denials,  and  no 
faith  can  live  on  denials  It  has  no  Trinity,  no  Incarnation,  no 
Redeemer,  no  Vicarous  atonement,  no  Day  of  Judgment,  no  Per- 
dition, no  Salvation  for  believers,  etc.,  etc. — O.  B.  Frothingham. 

The  creed  of  one  who  has  large  reflective  but  small  perceptive 
faculties  will  be  very  different  from  one  who  has  large  perceptive 
but  small  reflective  faculties.  A  dry  thinker  has  no  social  emotions, 
and  no  artistic  feeling.  The  truth  he  sees  is  truth  as  bare  as  gran- 
ite.— No  flower  in  it,  and  no  color  in  it ; — pure,  high,  dry  specu- 
lative truth.  That  seems  to  him  sweet  and  beautiful, — conforms 
to  his  organization.  His  next  neighbor  is  poetically  endowed; 
and  no  truth  seems  beautiful  to  him  that  has  not  leaves  and  flow- 
ers. Color  which  comes  from  feelings  is  to  him  an  essential  part 
of  the  statement  of  the  truth  itself. — Reasoners  and  factualists, 


40()  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

dreamers,  seers,  sharp  analysts,  men  looking  up  and  around, 
perceiving  the  minutest  objects — cannot  be  brought  to  the  same 
form  of  statement,  the  same  symbolism. 

.  .  .  A  man  of  poetic  sentiment,  can  scarcely  be  got  into  the 
Arminian  church,  as  represented  by  the  Methodists,  nor  into  the 
Calvinistic  church,  as  represented  by  the  Presbyterians.  If  he  be 
full  of  tender  associations  and  sweet  seeings,  he  will  incline 
toward  the  Episcopal  church.  If  the  element  of  veneration  be 
added,  he  says,  *'  I  want  to  worship,  I  do  not  feel  any  great  need 
of  thinking,  I  do  not  care  for  your  heavy  sermons  when  you 
preach  the  doctrine  of  government:  my  soul  is  hungry.  I  want 
gentle,  sweet,  beauteous  influences."  And  the  moment  the  organ 
sounds,  and  the  priests  come  in  wearing  their  vestments,  he  is  im- 
pressed by  the  harmony  and  order  and  symmetry  which  prevail. 
A  thousand  covert,  glancing  ideas  are  brought  to  him,  which  just 
touch  that  which  is  in  him;  and  he  says:  "That  is  divine.  Now 
I  have  found  rest.  This  is  beautiful."  It  ts  beautiful  to  him. 
Why  not  let  him  have  it.? 

The  attempt  to  bring  the  glowing  and  fervid  Orientals,  the 
staid  and  practical  Occidentals,  the  mediaeval  minds,  the  artist 
minds,  the  sombre  and  unirradiating  natures,  and  the  light  and 
gay  natures,  all  to  one  statement  of  speculative  truth,  is  as  wild 
and  preposterous  as  the  boy's  race  after  the  rainbow.  It  cannot 
be  done. 

Churches  come  together  by  elective  affinity;  and  each  has  hid- 
den in  its  bosom  some  great  element  that  perhaps  none  of  the 
others  have. 

Sects  are  candlesticks,  and  a  man  or  woman  that  is  big  enough 
to  be  good  for  anything  is  too  large  for  any  sect. 

A  creed  is  a  good  thing  to  teach  a  congregation  by,  and  to  cat- 
echise children  by.  It  is  good  to  lay  down  general  points  of  be- 
lief round  which  a  congregation  may  gather.  But  a  creed  is  not 
a  whip  of  scorpion  by  which  we  are  to  lash  each  other's  backs. 

Ministers  make  themselves  ecclesiastical  engineers,  and  are  so 
busy  running  the  machinery  of  the  church,  that  they  have  no 
leisure  left  for  anything  else. 

I  believe  the  time  will  come,  when  the  liberty  and  catholicity  of 
all  sects  will  be  such  that  men  will  not  be   talking  about  abolish- 


THE  POSSIBLE  IN  CHRISTIAN  UNITY.  407 

ing  denominations  and  sects.  The  idea  is  an  absurdity.  They 
never  will  be  abolished.  But  the  time  will  come,  I  believe,  when 
a  man  will  feel  at  home  in  them  all,  and  when  Christianity  will 
be  open  and  free  to  all  alike.  Then  you  will  have  Christian 
union. — H.  IV.  Beecher. 

.  .  .  the  development  of  differences  must  precede  their  rec- 
onciliation. Variety  must  precede  harmony,  analysis  must  pre- 
pare the  way  for  synthesis,  opposition  must  go  before  union. — 
Jas.  F.  Clarke. 

However  stringent  and  pronounced  may  be  the  form  in  which 
one's  traditional  faith  may  have  been  expressed,  it  is  certain  that 
temperament,  gradually,  with  irresistible  power  modifies  one's 
creed.— 6>/^  Town  Folks. 

Like  coalesces  in  this  world  with  unlike.  The  strong  and  the 
weak,  the  contemplative  and  the  active  bind  themselves  together. 
They  are  necessary  for  each  other. — F.  W.  Robertson. 

We  are  all  of  us  traditioners  in  a  degree  much  greater  than  we 
think.  What  we  suppose  to  be  from  Scripture  is  really,  as  a  gen- 
eral rule,  from  the  catechism,  or  the  schoolmaster,  or  the  preacher, 
or  the  school  of  thought  in  immediate  contact  with  which  we  have 
been  brought  up. — Gladstone  on  Ecce  Homo. 

The  strong  lines  of  character  which  marked  men  on  earth,  one 
may  suppose,  will  distinguish  them  hereafter.  Paul  will  retain 
his  ardor,  John  his  kindness,  Isaiah  his  imagination,  .  .  there 
will  be  different  degrees  of  the  same  excellence  and  different  em- 
ployments corresponding  to  the  character.  .  .  .  We  shall  be 
the  same  beings  as  on  earth;  we  shall  retain  our  present  faculties, 
our  present  affections,  our  love  of  knowledge,  love  of  beauty,  love 
of  action,  love  of  approbation,  our  sympathy,  gratitude,  and  pleas- 
ure in  success. 

I  imagine,  that  our  present  religious  organizations  will  silently 
melt  away,  and  that  hierarchies  will  be  found  no  more  necessary 
for  religion  than  for  literature,  science,  medicine,  law,  or  the  el- 
egant and  useful  arts. — Dr.  Channing. 

.  .  .  in  the  sense  of  that  living  belief  which  regulates  con- 
duct, they  believe  these  doctrines  just  up  to  the  point,  to  which  it 
is  usual  to  act  upon  them.  The  doctrines  in  their  integrity  are 
serviceable  to  pelt  adversaries  with. — Mill. — Liberty. 


408  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

"  I  will  not  loathe  sects,  persuasions,  systems,  though  I  cannot 
abide  in  them  one  moment,  for  I  see  that  by  most  men  they  are 
still  needed." — Margaret  Fuller. — Memoirs. 

"Truth  is  the  property  of  no  creed,  but  belongs  in  varying  pro- 
portion to  all  Christian  churches." — Pcre  Hyacinthe. 

Wisdom,  justice,  self-denial,  nobleness,  purity,  high-minded- 
ness, — these  are  the  qualities  before  which  the  free-born  races  of 
Europe  have  been  contented  to  bov^r;  and  in  no  order  of  men 
vvere  such  qualities  to  be  found  as  they  were  found  six  hundred 
years  ago  in  the  clergy  of  the  Catholic  church. — Froude. —  Times 
of  Erasmus  and  Luther. 

The  highest  unity  is  to  be  reached  only  through  the  full  devel- 
opment and  reconciliaton  of  the  deepest  and  widest  antagonism 

Hegel  according  to  Caird. 

Nor  is  it  all  incredible,  that  a  book,  which  has  been  so  long  in 
the  possession  of  mankind,  should  contain  many  truths  as  yet  un- 
discovered. For,  all  the  same  phenomena,  and  the  same  facul- 
ties of  investigation,  from  which  such  great  discoveries  in  natural 
knowledge  have  been  made  in  the  present  and  last  age,  were 
equally  in  the  possession  of  mankind,  several  thousand  years  be- 
fore. And  possibly,  it  might  be  intended,  that  events,  as  they 
come  to  pass,  should  open  and  ascertain  the  meaning  of  several 
parts  of  Scripture. 

It  is  highly  necessary  that  we  remind  ourselves,  how  great 
presumption  it  is,  to  make  light  of  any  institutions  of  divine  ap- 
pointment; that  our  obligations  to  obey  all  God's  commands 
whatever  are  absolute  and  indispensable;  and  that  commands 
merely  positive,  admitted  to  be  from  him,  lay  us  under  a  moral 
obligation  to  obey  them ; — an  obligation  moral  in  the  strictest  and 
most  proper  sense.  .  .  .  Positive  institutions  are  manifestly 
necessary  to  keep  and  propagate  religion  amongst  mankind. — 
Butler'' s  Analogy. 

If  the  work  of  this  world's  conversion  cannot  unite  the 
body  of  Christ,  what  can  do  this.-*  .  .  .  Can  that  be  Chris- 
tian union,  which  vanishes  the  moment  there  is  something  to  do.? 
—Prof,  A,  Phelps,— Bib.  Sac.  July,  18J4. 


So  long  as  the  male  was  looked  upon  as  the  only  type  of  God, 
and  the  masculine  virtues  as  the  only  glory  of  His  character,  so 
long  was  the  truth  yet  unrevealed.  ...  It  was  not  manhood, 
but  humanity  that  was  made  divine  in  Him.  In  all  noble  charac- 
ters you  find  divine  manliness,  divine  womanliness  blended. — F. 
W.  Robertson. 

It  is  not  enough  to  shout  in  women's  conventions  for  women's 
rights.  There  are  things  that  women  will  find  to  do  at  home  be- 
fore they  come  to  these  questions  of  suffrage — though  these  are 
in  their  place  important.  There  are  virtues,  there  are  rights,  and 
there  are  duties,  that  lie  fundamental  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
household,  and  so  take  hold  of  a  woman's  very  life,  and  to  which 
women's  attention  should  be  called. — H.  W.  Beecher. 

In  all  this  talk  about  the  rights  of  men,  and  the  rights  of  wo- 
men, and  the  rights  of  children,  the  world  seems  to  be  forgetting 
what  is  quite  as  important,  the  duties  of  men  and  women   and 
children. — Harriet  Beecher  Stowe. — The  Chinmey  Corner. 
And  woman  is  not  undeveloped  man, 
But  diverse.     Could  we  make  her  as  the  man, 
Sweet  love  were  slain.     His  dearest  bond  is  this: 
Not  like  in  like,  but  like  in  difference; 
Yet  in  long  years  liker  shall  they  grow. 
The  man  be  more  of  woman,  she  of  man  ; 
He  gain  in  sweetness,  and  in  moral  height. 
Nor  lose  the  wrestling  thews  that  throw  the  world  ; 
She  mental  breadth,  nor  fail  in  childward  care, 
Nor  lose  the  childlike  in  the  larger  mind, 
Till  at  the  last  she  set  herself  to  man 
Like  perfect  music  unto  noble  words; 
And  so  these  twain,  upon  the  skirts  of  time, 
,      Sit  side  by  side,  full-summed  in  all  their  powers, 
Dispensing  harvest,  sowing  the  To  Be. 
Then  comes  the  statelier  Eden  back  to  men. 
Then  springs  the  crowning  race  of  human  kind. 


(409) 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  WOMEN. 

For  ye  are  all  the  sons  of  God  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 
There  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free ; 
there  is  neither  male  nor  female ;  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ 
Jesus. — Galatians  in:  26-28. 

The  head  of  the  woman  is  the  man ;  .  .  .  but  the  woman  is 
the  glory  of  the  man. — /  Cor.  xi:  j-y. 

What  are  the  rights,  duties  and  responsibilities  of 
women?  What  participation  shall  they  have  in  secu- 
lar and  religious  affairs?  What  shall  be  their  relative 
position  when  humanity  shall  be  Christianized? 
These  are  questions  that  society  and  Christian 
churches  must  confront  and  determine. 

Though  woman  has  been  regarded  and  treated  as 
inferior  by  man  in  his  savage  and  semi-civilized  state, 
her  relative  equality  to  him  in  soulhood  is  recognized 
in  the  teachings  and  practice  of  Jesus  and  His  Apos- 
tles. Did  ever  human  being  manifest  more  consider- 
ation for  her  than  did  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ?  What 
if,  in  his  letters  to  Timothy,  the  Galatians  and  the 
Corinthians,  Paul  undertook  to  limit  and  restrain 
local  abuses  on  the  part  of  the  other  sex?  The  en- 
nobling specification  of  various  women  by  their 
names,  with  those  of  brethren   who  labored  much 

(410) 


THE  RELATIVE  EQUALITY  OF  WOMEN.  411 

with  him  in  the  Gospel,  cannot  be  forgotten.^  Be- 
lievers individually  and  as  bodies,  in  the  past,  have 
been  narrow  and  unjust  in  restricting  rights,  duties 
and  privileges  of  women  in  society  and  in  ecclesiasti- 
cal life.  But  from  the  brotherhood  the  unhallowed 
leaven  is  being  purged. 

Experience  confirms  what  reason  affirms,  and  what 
cannot  be  shown  the  Bible  denies,  that  women  are 
the  relative  equals  of  men  in  soulhood;  that  in  union 
of  masculinity  and  femininity  each  is  a  complement 
of  the  other;  not  that  rights,  duties,  responsibilities 
are  equal  in  that  they  are  the  same,  but  that  they  are 
equivalent  in  relation  and  sphere  of  action. 

Man's  organism  surpasses  woman's  in  qualification 
and  adaptation  for  material  achievement.  But  wo- 
men excel  men  in  quickness  and  keenness  of  percep- 
tion, in  delicacy  and  refinement,  moral  and  domestic 
sway. 

Her  rapid  mind  decides,  while  his  debates ; 
She  feels  the  truth  that  he  but  calculates. 

Because,  according  to  the  Scripture  narrative,  wheth- 
er it  be  literal  or  figurative  extraction, — a  fact  or  a 

I.  Some  of  the  feminine  names  which  appear  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment are :  Anna,  Apphia,  Chloe,  Claudia,  Damaris,  Dorcas,  Elisa- 
beth, Eunice,  Euodia,  Joanna,  Julia,  Lois,  Lydia,  Martha,  Mary 
of  Bethany,  Mary  of  Magdala,  Mary  of  Nazareth,  Mary  of  Rome, 
Mary  the  Mother  of  Mark,  Mary  the  wife  of  Cleopas,  Persis, 
Phoebe,  Priscilla,  Rhoda,  Salome,  Susanna,  Syntyche,  Trj'ph^na, 
Tryphosa,  etc.  "  There  were  many  women  on  whom  the  Lord 
bestowed  signal  favors,  but  whose  names  have  not  come  down  to 
us ; — Peter's  mother-in-law,  the  widow  of  Nain,  the  daughter  of 
Jairus,  the  woman  with  the  issue  of  blood,  the  Canaanite  mother 
and   daughter,  the   woman   with   the  eighteen   years'  infirmity. 


412  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

symbol  as  to  body  or  soul,  or  both  in  conjunction, — 
implying  at  the  utmost  but  the  priority  of  man's  cre- 
ation; her  inferiority  is  not  assured  therefrom,  no 
more  than,  for  the  same  reason,  the  physical  or  men- 
tal inferiority  of  Abraham  to  Terah  is  assured,  or 
that  of  Daniel  Webster  to  his  father.  Descent 
does  not  necessarily  involve  inferiority.  Adam  named 
her  at  first  woman,  "because  she  was  taken  out  of 
him," — afterwards  Eve,  "  because  she  was  the  mother 
of  all  living."  But  male  and  female  God  created 
them,  and  He  called  their  (joint)  name  Adam,  in  the 
day  when  they  were  created.     Gen.  v :  2. 

Superiority  in  physical  or  mental  organization  can- 
not be  predicated  from  priority  of  being  or  headship 
of  race.  The  material  basis  of  woman's  structure,  as 
declared, having  been  "taken  from  man,"  of  which  "He 
made"  her, —  distinctively,  independently,  as  He 
made  man,  may  indicate  a  certain  dependence  on  him, 
as  his  subsequent  descent  from  her  declares  the  ne- 
cessity of  her  being  and  her  indispensableness  to 
him.  Since  the  practical  reason, — the  combined  judg- 
ments of  men,  is  not  allowed  to  decisively  settle  this 
question  with  Bible  religionists,  the  appeal  is  to 
what  can  be  indicated  from  the  facts  or  declarations 
of  that  Book.  The  principal  resort  is  to  the  state- 
ments of  Paul. 

Though  it  be  admitted  that  all  Scripture — the  rec- 

There  are  the  many  anonymous  women  who  tried,  in  one  way  or 
another,  to  serve  the  Lord  Jesus;  the  woman-evangelist  of  Jacob's 
well,  the  penitent  adorer  in  Simon's  house,  the  widow  with  her 
two  mites,  Pilate's  wife,  the  wailing  women  on  their  way  to  Cal- 
vary, the  praying  women  of  the  upper  chamber." 


MASCULINITY  AND  FEMININITY  IN  THE  CHBIST.      413 

ognized  Canon,  God-inspired,  is  substantially  author- 
itative— that  is,  the  truth  embodied, — by  no  means 
interpolated  and  transcribed  errors;  it  is  not  admitted, 
that  every  declaration  was  intended  to  be  universal 
in  its  application  and  in  obligation,  and  not  some- 
times exclusively  local  and  temporary.  Doubtless, 
the  thought  or  the  sentiment  revealed  was,  sometimes, 
only  one  of  the  many  sides  of  truth — toned  more  or 
less  by  the  idiosyncracy,  the  mental  or  moral  habits, 
and  the  limitations  of  the  medium  through  which  it 
came.  The  statement  of  truth  through  Paul,  Peter, 
James  and  John  was  as  varied  as  the  natures  through 
which  it  passed. 

There  was  femininity  as  well  as  masculinity  in  the 
manifestation  of  God  in  His  Christ.  They  twain 
were  in  complete  proportion  and  adjustment  for  union 
in  Him.  In  all  that  He  said  or  did,  there  is  no  af- 
firmation or  implication  of  woman's  inferiority  to 
man.  He  assumed  her  relative  equality,  as  in  fact 
do  all  large-minded  and  large-hearted  men.  To 
Him,  the  home  of  Mary  and  Martha  was  specially 
attractive.  It  was  the  feminine, — the  complement  of 
the  masculine,  which  men  in  all  ages  had  ignored  and 
striven  to  depress  in  humanity, — it  was  the  feminine 
in  man  or  woman,  conspicuous  in  the  disciple  whom 
Jesus  loved, — not  the  mere  female  sex,  for  which  He 
had  affiliation,  as  if  He  would  thus  significantly  re- 
mind men  of  their  previous  sad  neglect  and  gross  in- 
justice, and  thus  concretely  enforce  the  theory  of  all 
His  teachings,  that  the  love-element  is  to  sway  the 
world.     God  Himself  is  love. 

It  is  apparent,  also,  that  the  judgments  of  the  apos- 


414  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

tolic  writers  respecting  the  practices  and  customs  of 
society  where  they  went,  though  they  were  God-in- 
spired, were  more  or  less  swayed  and  toned  by  the 
bias  of  constitution.  Paul,  against  natural  desire, 
and  the  general  duty  of  marriage,  chose  celibacy. 
Who  will  affirm,  that  his  declarations  respecting 
woman's  sphere  in  a  church,  or  her  general  duties 
in  the  family  or  in  the  world  were  not  limited  or 
modified  by  this  fact?  Besides:  his  Epistles  were 
primarily  specific  and  intended  for  local  application. 
Universal  truth  in  them  was  universal  in  application, 
as  is  true  of  all  writings.  A  certain  measure  of  in- 
spiration is  imparted  to  each  man,  though  not  the 
same  measure,  nor  an  equal  to  the  same  one,  at  dif- 
ferent periods.  The  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  is 
given  to  each  man  to  profit  withal.  1  Cor.  xii:7. 
Paul  in  one  instance  distinctly  stated,  that  the  judg- 
ment he  gave  was  by  permission, — as  the  mere  expres- 
sion of  his  fallible  opinion. 

Headship  in  the  family, — the  prerogative  of  the 
husband  and  the  father,  is  not  based  on  mental  super- 
iority, but  on  domestic,  social,  political  necessity,  as 
well  as  on  divine  statement  and  requirement.  Where 
there  will  be  conflict  of  opinion, — and  there  must  be 
unity  in  action, — to  some  one  must  be  the  ultimate 
appeal  and  final  decision,  taking  with  it,  of  course, 
the  consequent  responsibility.  Eights  and  duties  be- 
tween men  and  women  are  reciprocal — to  be  mutually 
respected.  Women,  in  common  with  men,  when  they 
have  secured  their  own  rights,  are  not  free  from  the 
temptation  to  usurp  the  prerogatives  and  rights  of 
the  other  sex.  When  they  suffer  themselves  to  be  thus 


HEADSHIP  NOT  BASED  ON  MENTAL  SUPERIOBITY.    415 

possessed,  they  unsex  and  discrown  themselves  of  the 
tiara  of  "glory"   in  their  sphere,  with  which  the 
Apostle  adorned  them.     The  illustration  is  not  re- 
fined, perhaps  coarse,  but  it  seems  pat: — when  two 
persons  undertake  to  ride  a  horse,  one  must  ride  be- 
hind.   It  is  so, — exterior  to  the  family,  in  every  circle. 
The  righteous  and  the  wise  husband  and  father  will 
not  come  to  the  assertion  of  his  prerogative,  except  in 
the  last  extremity,  and  after  the  conference  and  the 
counsel  with  the  wife  and  mother.     But  there  are  ex- 
ceptions even  to  this  general  rule,  when  the  incapacity 
of  the  natural  "head"  for  his  position  is  very  mani- 
fest, and  the  superior  capacity  and  wisdom  of  the 
"  glory  "  are  equally  apparent.     All  resistance  of  the 
inferior  to  the  superior  sway  of  the  superior  in  mind, 
morals  and  culture, — even  of  the  masculine  to  the 
feminine    under  such  conditions  is  futile.     But  in 
that  sway  there  must  be  no  controlling  conceit  and 
self-seeking,  and  it  must  proceed  upon  a  righteous 
basis.     The  Chief  Justice  is  superior  in  position  to 
his  Associates  on  the  Bench,  to  the  Advocate  at  the 
Bar,  or  to  a  Juryman  in  the  Box;  but  he  maybe  alto- 
gether inferior  to  them  in  original  endowment  or  cul- 
ture.    Very  often  is  the  wife  intellectually  superior 
to  the  husband,  but  unless  the  natural  and  ordained 
"head"   is  manifestly  incompetent  to  reach  and  to 
wield  a  last  and  right  decision,  the  wise  woman  and 
wife  will  choose  not  to  assert  or  usurp  his  prerog- 
ative.    He  must  bear  his  own  burden.     She  can  not 
do  it  for  him,  but  she  may  aid  him  in  coming  to  the 
assertion  of  his  prerogative,  and  to  the  assumption 
of  his  responsibility,  by  her  counsels.  She  may  guide 


416  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

him  to  it  by  wise  and  righteous  tact  She  may  brace 
him  in  the  continuance  of  its  exercise  by  stimulus. 
She  can  always  have  enough  of  such  participation  in 
it,  more  perhaps  than  she  may  desire, — more  than 
she  needs.  Who  should  desire  power  with  its  respon- 
sibility? only  those  upon  whom  God  devolves  it,  and 
then,  not  for  its  own  sake. 

The  great  Apostle,  whose  deliverances  respecting 
the  practices  of  certain  women  in  the  church  at  Co- 
rinth and  elsewhere  have  been  ever  cited  in  justifica- 
tion of  the  repression  of  women's  gifts,  liberty  and 
privileges  in  the  churches,  declared  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians:  "For  ye  are  all  the  sons  of  God, 
through  faith  in  Christ  Jesus.  There  is  neither  Jew 
nor  Greek,  neither  bond  nor  free,  no  male  and  fe- 
male, for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus.  Gal.  iii :  26- 
28.  It  would  seem,  that  there  could  be  no  logical  ev- 
olution of  intolerance  and  repression  out  of  such  dec- 
larations, indeed  nothing  but  freedom  and  relative 
equality.  He  indeed  declared  in  another  epistle,  that 
"man  is  the  head  of  the  woman."  But  he  also  declares, 
that  "woman  is  the  glory  of  the  man."  Whether  it 
is  superior  to  be  a  " head  "  or  to  be  a  "  glory?"  But 
by  grace  in  Christ  Jesus,  they  are  "  one."  Those  who 
cite  I  Cor.  xiv:  34,  as  authority  for  the  repression  or 
limitation  of  the  gifts  in  the  sisterhood,  should  rec- 
oncile their  exegesis  with  the  propriety  of  such  par- 
ticipation recognized  in  the  5th  and  13th  verses  of 
the  11th  chapter  of  the  same  epistle.  One  passage  is 
as  authoritative  as  that  of  the  other.  They  will  be 
more  clearly  apprehended  hereafter,  as  those,  once 
perplexing  respecting  slavery,  are  now.     Time  and 


MAN  THE  "HEAD,"  WOMAN  THE  "GLORY."         417 

Providence  are  often  the  best  exegetes.  "  Experience 
is  a  very  good  expositor  of  the  Word  in  many  cases."  * 
It  is  evident,  that  inspired  teachings  cannot  be  con- 
tradictory. They  are  so  made  by  those  who  inter- 
pret them — as  forbidding  the  sisterhood  in  these  ripe 
Christian  days,  from  a  common  participation  with  the 
brotherhood  in  the  privileges  and  duties  of  church 
life.  In  a  true  union,  where  one  would  be  the  exact 
complement  of  the  other, — possessing  physiologically 
or  mentally  that  which  the  other  lacked,  there  would 
be  a  complete  realization  of  soulhood.  Each  is  su- 
perior in  some  characteristics.  The  "  head  "  excels 
in  physical  energy,  the  "  glory "  in  refinement  and 
delicacy.  One  is  the  sturdy  oak,  the  other  is  the  inter- 
twining vine.  Man  grasps  at  great  external  enter- 
prises. Woman  sways  in  the  home, — in  every  social 
province  where  the  heart, — not  the  intellect,  emotion, 
— not  logic,  is  supreme.  He  grapples  more  success- 
fully with  problems  in  mental,  moral  or  physical 
science, — can  abide  longer  in  application  for  their  so- 
lution. He  will  reason  ploddingly,  consecutively, 
patiently  to  conclusion.  She  will  fly  to  it, — reaching 
it  with  one  bound, — hence  it  is  not  always  sound  or 
righteous.  She  surpasses  in  quickness  of  perception, 
in  sensibility,  tact,  fortitude,  troth,  constancy. 

More  human,  more  divine  than  we, — 
In  truth,  half  human,  half  divine 
Is  woman. 

Man  is  "  head  "  in  the  family,  woman  is  its  "  glory." 
But  a  family  is  not  a  church.  There  is  no  male  and 
female  " in  the  body  of  Christ."     "All  are  the  sons 

27  I.     Oliver  Cromwell. 


418  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

of  God  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus,"—"  all  are  one."  The 
distinctions  of  sex  are  not  recognized  in  the  spiritual 
kingdom.  "All  ye  are  brethren."  Jesus  alone  is 
"  Head  "  of  it.  In  the  family  are  husband,  wife,  par- 
ents and  children,  none  of  them  may  be  "  brethren  " 
of  the  spiritual  household.  In  a  church  they  all  are 
the  sons  of  God  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus — brethren 
to  each  other 

In  what  estimation  the  Son  of  God  held  woman 
may  be  discerned  from  the  attention  He  ever  gave 
her.  Mention  is  made  in  Luke  viii  of  "  many  "  whom 
He  allowed  to  attend  Him,  and  to  minister  to  Him  of 
their  substance.  The  world  will  never  forget  the 
story  of  the  fallen  one — brought  to  Him  by  the  sinis- 
ter ostensibly  for  judgment — condemnation,  knowing 
well  His  merciful  proclivity, — that  they  might  entrap 
Him; — nor  the  remarkable  colloquy  held  by  Him  with 
the  lapsed  but  simple-hearted  one  at  the  well  of  Sa- 
maria;— his  attachment  to  the  sisters  of  Lazarus; — 
nor  the  first  manifestation  of  Himself  after  the  res- 
urrection to  the  Magdalene. 

Those,  who  stumble  at  a  single  declaration  of  Paul, 
must  not  forget  his  special  mention  of  devoted  wom- 
en in  commendation  of  their  Christian  graces,  and  of 
their  abundant  labors : — I  beseech  thee,  also,  true  yoke- 
fellow, help  these  women,  for  they  labored  with  me 
in  the  Gospel,  said  he.  Phil.  iv:3.  Can  it  be  be- 
lieved, the  magnanimous  apostle  would  have  excluded 
such  from  a  common  participation  with  him  in  the 
privileges  of  church  life,  when  he  allowed  them  to 
labor  externally  with  him  in  the  Gospel,  and  re- 
joiced in  their  fellowship  with  him  in  this  work? 


THE  DECLARATIONS  OF  PAUL.  419 

Never!  Believe  it,  Jew  or  Gentile,  who  can.  His 
Epistle  to  the  Eomans  closes  with  a  munificent  cluster 
of  salutations  to  his  brethren  beloved,  who  labored 
with  him  in  the  Lord,  very  tender  in  the  enunci- 
ation and  in  the  enumeration,  one-third  of  which  are 
addressed  to  women,  special  mention  being  made  of 
Phoebe — servant  (deaconess)  of  the  church  at  Cen- 
chrea,  "  a  succorer  of  many,  and  of  myself  also;"  and 
of  others  "who  labor  in  the  Lord,"  and  who  "labored 
much  in  the  Lord,"  ending  with  the  statement,  orig- 
inally or  subsequently  subjoined,  that  Phoebe  herself 
was  the  bearer  of  this  message  to  the  Christianhood  at 
Eome.  God  had  fore-declared:  "  I  will  pour  out  my 
spirit  upon  all  Plesh,  and  your  sons  and  daughters 
shall  prophesy."  Philip, — one  of  the  seven,  into 
whose  house  Luke  and  Paul  entered  and  abode,  had 
four  daughters  who  prophesied  or  discoursed — gave 
religious  instruction.     Acts  xxi :  9. 

Surely,  the  hyper-Scriptural  have  but  a  narrow 
text  and  a  slender  exegesis  upon  which  to  base  their 
denial  to  women  of  the  exercise  and  the  sway  of  their 
natural  gifts  in  the  churches  or  out  of  them; — no  place 
to  stand,  afforded  by  natural  reason.  As  to  the  world 
without,  selfishness  is  ever  dominant  in  some  form  of 
manifestation.  Might  makes  right  with  it.  Man  is 
stronger  in  mere  physical  or  mental  energy,  and  has 
possession  of  all  the  main  positions  in  society.  For  the 
most  part,  he  has  been  ordained  to  them  by  his  nature 
and  special  adaptation.  He  will  not  relinquish  to  any 
feminine — superior  in  certain  original  endowments  or 
educational  qualifications,  without  such  a  contest  as  the 
ins  always  make  against  the  attempted  incoming  of 


420  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

the  outs.     This  is  one  of  the  great  conflicts  of  the  fu- 
ture, upon  which  humanity  is  just  entering. 

It  has  been  said:  no  crime  in  the  past  ages  was 
ever  perpetrated  which  did  not  seek  refuge  and  cov- 
ert in  Scripture, — was  not  even  shielded  there — at  least 
for  a  season,  by  its  professional  expounders  and  cus- 
todians,— the  learned  Scribes  and  the  influential  Doc- 
tors of  denominations.  Such  a  remark  was  frequently 
made  in  connection  with  the  toleration  and  defence 
of  American  slavery  before  the  Eebellion.  Whether 
the  accusation  is  wholly  just  or  not;  it  is  true,  that 
the  temple  of  God  in  His  Word  or  His  people,  has 
been  made  by  such  expounders  a  sanctuary  of  last  re- 
sort for  crime  and  error,  because  there  only  could 
they  be  effectually  shielded  from  the  hot  pursuit  of 
the  world's  Avenger, — the  outraged  sentiment  of 
mankind.  When  its  custodians  are  so  indiscreet  as 
to  grant  only  a  temporary  refuge  for  such  an  outlaw, 
it  will  not  be  long  ere  its  sacred  precincts  will  be  in- 
vaded, and  he  be  slain  through  clinging  to  the  very 
horns  of  the  altar.  Then,  it  Avill  be  sacred  to  multi- 
tudes no  more.  Let  be  said  what  may  be  upon  the 
inability  of  reason  alone,  sanctified  or  unsanctified,  to 
guide  aright  the  bewildered  understanding;  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  sentiment  of  the  world,  in  long  stretches 
of  time,  upon  any  practice,  and  especially  its  exegesis 
of  any  related  Scripture,  is  nearer  being  univocal 
with  the  voice  of  God,  and  a  better  expositor  of  His 
Word,  than  that  of  the  Scribes  of  any  sect,  who  are 
fallible,  certainly  limited  and  one-sided  in  their  in- 
tellectual and  educational  endowments;  and  who  may 


SWAY  OF  THE  LOVE-ELEMENT  IN  THE  FUTURE.     421 

be  serfs  to  their  pride  of  exegesis,  constitutional  or 
sectarian  bias. 

The  various  Christian  denominations  must  prop- 
erly recognize  the  rights  and  duties  of  women  in  or 
out  of  them,  or  they  will  be  discarded  as  leaders  in 
the  world's  civil  and  religious  progress, — be  found  in 
the  rear  of  all  reformatory  movements. 

All  political,  social  or  Christian  development  must 
be  one-sided,  unsymmetrical,  which  has  not  been 
evolved  through  the  leaven  of  woman's  influence,  as 
well  as  man's.  The  love-element  is  to  sway  in  the 
regenerating  and  edifying  forces  of  the  future.  That 
prevails  in  woman  and  in  large-hearted,  great-hearted 
men,  especially  of  all  the  spiritually  successful  and 
the  useful.  He,  who  aspires  to  do  much  or  anything 
for  the  Christianization  of  others,  must  strive  to  educe 
this  divinest  of  attributes  found  in  all — in  richer  or 
leaner  measures.  God  is  love,  and  that  love  descend- 
ing out  of  Heaven  into  human  hearts  is  to  lift  them 
up  to  Himself.  He  who  has  the  most  of  it  will  be 
most  like  Him,  and  be  most  successful  in  his  Chris- 
tian mission. 


ILLUSTRATIVE  AND  SUGGESTIVE. 


Next  to  the  originator  of  a  good  sentence  is  the  first  quoter  of  it. — Emerson. 


The  law  of  nature  assigns  to  man  the  forces,  to  women  the 
graces ;  to  man  the  strength,  to  woman  the  beauty ;  to  man  ambi- 
tion, to  woman  modesty ;  to  man  distrust,  to  woman  faith ;  to  man 
philosophy,  to  woman  religion ;  to  man  government,  to  woman 
devotion ;  to  man  the  State,  to  woman  the  Church ;  this  division 
implies  no  absolute  but  only  a  quasi  inferiority  in  either.  .  .  . 
Woman  is  man's  superior  in  grace,  beauty,  modesty,  faith,  religion 
and  sacrifice.  .  .  .  Grace  rules  force,  beauty  prevails  over 
strength,  modesty  with  its  silken  reins  guides  the  course  of  am- 
bition, faith  prevails  over  distrust,  religion  over  philosophy,  and 
the  Church  rules  the  State  the  world  over,  by  a  power  finer,  subt- 
ler and  less  visible,  but  not  less  actual  or  powerful  than  the  mas- 
culine virtues  rule  the  feminine.  .  .  .  Masculinity  carries  in 
the  distribution  of  sex  the  governmental  function.  .  .  .  All 
government  belongs  to  men.  Not  that  women  are  never  set  in 
kingly  positions.  .  .  .  The  question  of  expenditure  as  related 
to  income,  the  question  of  residence,  occupation,  emigration, 
where,  of  course,  every  effort  should  be  made  to  compose  differ- 
ences of  feeling  and  judgment,  must  be  settled  by  agreement. 
But  if  a  case  arises  where  agreement  is  impossible,  one  of  the  two 
clearly  must  decide,  and  it  must  be  the  man.  The  woman's  law 
of  allegiance,  sometimes  a  hard  one,  requires  of  her  to  adhere  to 
the  man,  submit  herself  to  his  fortunes  and  go  down  with  him 
bravely  when  his  day  of  disaster  comes.  The  sway,  the  determin- 
ing mastership  must  be  so  far  with  him,  and  it  cannot  be  any- 
where else  without  some  very  deplorable  consequences  to  his 
manhood.  If  he  has  no  sway-force  in  him  equal  to  this,  no  au- 
thority of  will  and  council  that  enables  him  to  hold  the  reins,  he 

(423) 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  WOMEN.  423 

is  no  longer  what  nature  means  when  she  makes  a  man. — Dr. 
Bushnell. 

In  active  courage  women  are  inferior  to  men.  In  the  courage 
of  endurance  they  are  commonly  their  superiors ;  but  their  passive 
courage  is  not  so  much  fortitude  which  bears  and  defies,  as  resig- 
nation which  bears  and  bends.  In  the  ethics  of  intellect  they  are 
decidedly  inferior.  .  .  .  Women  very  rarely  love  truth,  though 
they  love  passionately  what  they  call  the  truth,  or  opinions  they 
have  received  from  others,  and  hate  vehemently  those-  who  differ 
from  them.  They  are  little  capable  of  impartiality  or  of  doubt; 
their  thinking  is  chiefly  a  mode  of  feeling :  though  very  generous 
in  their  acts,  they  are  rarely  generous  in  their  opinions,  and  their 
leaning  is  naturally  to  the  side  of  restriction.  They  persuade 
rather  than  convince,  and  value  belief  rather  as  a  source  of  conso- 
lation than  as  a  faithful  expression  of  the  reality  of  things.  They 
are  less  capable  than  men  of  perceiving  qualifying  circumstances, 
of  admitting  the  existence  of  elements  of  good  in  systems  to  which 
they  are  opposed,  of  distinguishing  the  personal  character  of  an 
opponent  from  the  opinions  he  maintains.  Men  lean  most  to  jus- 
tice and  women  to  mercy.  .  .  .  Men  excel  in  energ}',  self- 
reliance,  perseverance  and  magnanimity;  women  in  humility, 
gentleness,  modesty  and  endurance. — Lecky. — Hist,  of  European 
Morals. 

Each  has  what  the  other  has  not ;  each  completes  the  other,  and 
is  completed  by  the  other ;  they  are  in  nothing  alike,  and  the  hap- 
piness and  perfection  of  both  depends  on  each  asking  and  receiv- 
ing from  the  other  what  the  other  can  give. — Ruskin. 

I  maintain  equivalency  in  the  fullest  sense.  I  admit  no  differ- 
ence in  the  worth  of  native  endowments  and  capacities,  and  if  I 
admit  any  difference  as  to  the  extent  of  influence,  of  the  amount 
of  good  work  done  in  the  world,  it  must  be  on  the  side  of  women 
certainly.  But  I  believe  that  women  cannot  learn  and  do  equally 
well  with  man  all  the  things  that  he  learns  and  does,  and  that 
man  cannot  learn  and  do  equally  well  with  women  all  the  things 
that  she  learns  and  does.  His  is  the  wider,  hers  the  richer  field. 
His  is  the  strength  of  reasoning,  hers  the  quicker  intuition  and 
and  clearer  insight;  his  the  more  easy  mastery  of  abstract  scien- 
ces, hers  the  far  finer  seeing  nature,  the  keener  sense  of  beauty  in 


424  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

art  and  in  literature,  and  the  larger  capacity  of  culture  in  all  that 
pertains  to  the  beauty,  charm,  ornament  and  joy  of  hoine  society. 
— Dr.  Peabody. 

The  influence  in  society  exerted  by  a  lady  of  true  refinement 
and  delicacy  of  character,  it  is  difficult  to  analyze  or  explain.  It 
lies  not  so  much  in  beauty  or  elegance  of  person,  in  vigor,  orig- 
inality, or  brilliancy  of  thought.  All  these  are  valuable,  and  con- 
tribute to  the  result.  Nor  is  it  merely  the  power  of  moral  worth. 
This  is  essential,  and  without  it  there  is  no  satisfactory  result. 
But  add  to  this  a  delicate  sense  of  proprieties,  a  quickness  of  per- 
ception to  adjust  herself  to  others,  to  occupy  the  place  that  falls 
to  her  with  dignity  and  ease,  and  you  have  a  civilizing  force  not 
easily  estimated.  Her  power  will  not  lie  in  the  new  ideas  she  sets 
forth,  nor  in  the  vigorous  enforcement  of  her  views. — There  is 
power  in  the  graceful  goodness  which  beams  from  her  counte- 
nance, in  the  beauty  and  harmony  of  her  action  and  her  life. 
Evil  will  fly  before  her  as  darkness  yields  to  light,  and  truth  and 
good  will  spring  up  in  her  pathway. — Prof.  Fairchild. 

The  natural  arrangement  is  a  division  of  powers  between  the 
two ;  each  being  absolute  in  the  executive  branch  of  their  own  de- 
partment, and  any  change  of  system  and  principle  of  requiring 
the  consent  of  both. 

We  have  had  the  morality  of  submission,  and  the  morality  of 
chivalry  and  generosity  ;  the  time  is  now  come  for  the  morality  of 
justice.  .  .  .  The  true  virtue  of  human  beings  is  fitness  to 
live  together  as  equals:  claiming  nothing  for  themselves,  but 
what  they  as  freely  concede  to  every  one  else. 

.  .  .  this,  and  this  only  is  the  ideal  of  marriage,  .  .  . 
the  case  of  two  persons  of  cultivated  faculties,  identical  in  opin- 
ions and  purposes,  between  whom  there  exists  that  best  kind  of 
equality,  similarity  of  powers  and  capacities  with  reciprocal  su- 
periority in  them — so  that  each  can  enjoy  the  luxury  of  looking 
up  to  the  other,  and  can  have  alternately  the  pleasure  of  leading 
and  being  led  in  the  path  of  development. — Mill. — Subjection  of 
Women. 

The  tendency  of  the  masculine  interest  is  toward  inquiry ;  that 
of  the  feminine  intellect  is  toward  receptiveness.  The  one  is  more 
logical,  the  other  more  emotional. —  W.R.  Greg. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  WOMEN.  425 

She  was  not  taken  from  common  earth,  but  from  a  part  of  man ; — 
"  not,"  as  Matthew  Henry  says,  "  out  of  his  head  to  top  him,  nor 
out  of  his  side  to  be  equal  with  him,  but  under  his  arm  to  be  pro- 
tected, and  near  his  heart  to  be  beloved." — Dr.  Ho;phms. 

Marriage  between  a  perfect  man  and  a  perfect  woman  would 
be  mvitual  surrender  and  mutual  sacrifice  ...  as  woman  has 
less  force  than  man,  less  force  of  muscle,  less  force  of  mind,  has 
more  fineness  of  body,  superior  fineness  of  intellect,  has  em- 
inence of  conscience,  eminence  of  affection,  eminence  of  the  re- 
ligious power,  eminence  of  the  soul ;  as  she  is  inferior  to  man  in 
his  lower  elements  and  superior  in  his  higher,  so  she  has  been 
prostrated  before  him.  Her  right  of  nature  has  been  trodden  under 
foot  by  his  might  of  nature.  This  degradation  of  woman  is  obvious 
in  all  forms  of  religion ;  it  is  terribly  apparent  in  the  Christian 
church. — Theo.  Parker. 

Equality  of  rights  between  the  sexes  has  in  all  past  stages  of  pro- 
gress been  simply  impracticable.  As  the  flower  can  be  only  the  last 
product  of  the  plant,  so  just  relations  of  the  sexes  can  be  only  the  last 
term  of  ages  of  human  culture.  Those  peculiar  gifts,  which  may 
have  always  more  or  less  compensated  for  her  physical  depend- 
ence, require  for  their  fair  manifestation,  a  more  refined  social  at- 
mosphere than  has  been  breathed  in  any  period  of  the  past. 

Japan  has  established  the  rights  of  women,  even  instituting 
monogamy  by  law,  and  providing  books  of  instruction  in  the  re- 
lation of  wife  and  mother  not  inferior  to  anything  of  the  kind  in 
the  West — JoJmson. — Oriental  Religions. 

The  truth  is  in  the  air,  and  the  most  impressionable  brain  will 
announce  it  first,  but  all  will  announce  it  a  few  moments  later; 
so  women,  as  most  susceptible,  are  the  best  index  of  the  com- 
ing hour.  So  the  great  man,  that  is,  the  man  most  imbued  with 
the  spirit  of  the  time,  is  the  impressionable  man, — of  a  fibre  ir- 
ritable, and  delicate,  like  iodine  to  light.  He  feels  the  infin- 
itesimal attractions.  His  mind  is  righter  than  others,  because 
he  yields  to  a  current  so  feeble  as  can  be  felt  only  by  a  needle  del- 
icately poised. — E7nerson. 

Methinks  a  thoughtful,  high-minded  woman  would  scarcely 
feel  degraded  by  a  lot  which  assimilates  her  to  the  divinest  man : 
"  He  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister."    I  have 


426  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

always  conceived  that  you  had  learned  to  count  that  ministry  the 
sublimest  life  which  the  world  has  seen,  and  its  humiliation  and 
subjection  precisely  the  features  which  were  most  divine.  .  .  . 
A  noble  woman  laying  on  herself  the  duties  of  her  sex,  while  fit 
for  higher  things.— the  world  has  nothing  to  show  more  like  the 
Son  of  Man  than  that.     .     .     . 

His  heart  had  in  it  the  blessed  qualities  of  both  sexes. 
Our  humanity  is  a  whole  made  up  of  two  opposite  poles  of  char- 
acter,— the  manly  and  the  feminine.  In  the  character  of  Christ 
neither  was  found  exclusively,  but  both  in  perfect  balance.  He 
was  the  Son  of  Man — the  human  Being — perfect  Man.  There 
was  in  Him  the  woman  heart  as  well  as  the  manly  brain, — all  that 
was  most  manly  and  all  that  was  most  womanly.     .     . 

I  think  Mariolotry  was  inevitable.  .  .  .  Until,  therefore, 
the  great  Truth  that  in  Christ  is  neither  male  nor  female — that 
His  was  the  double  nature,  all  that  was  most  manly  and  all  that 
was  most  womanly, — could  take  hold  of  men,  it  was  inevitable, 
that  Christianity  should  seem  imperfect  without  immaculate 
woman. — F.  W.  Robertson. 

Men  are  astonished  at  our  instincts.  They  do  not  see  where 
we  get  our  knowledge ;  and  while  they  tramp  on  in  their  clumsy 
way,  we  wheel  and  fly  and  dart  hither  and  thither,  and  seize  with 
ready  eye  all  the  weak  points,  like  Saladin  in  the  desert.  It  is 
quite  another  thing,  when  we  come  to  write,  and  without  sug- 
gestion from  another  mind,  to  declare  the  positive  amount  of 
thought  that  is  in  us.  Because  we  seem  to  know  all,  they  think 
we  can  tell  all;  and  finding  we  tell  so  little,  lose  faith  in  their  first 
opinion  of  us,  which  not  the  less  was  true. 

The  woman  in  me  kneels  and  weeps  in  tender  rapture ;  the  man 
in  me  rushes  forth,  but  only  to  be  baffled.  Yet  the  time  will  come, 
when,  from  the  union  of  this  tragic  king  and  queen,  shall  be  born 
a  radiant  sovereign  self. — Memoirs  of  Margaret  Fuller. 

Plato  says  somewhere,  that  the  only  perfect  human  thinker  and 
philosopher  who  will  ever  arise  will  be  the  Man-Woman,  or  a 
human  being  who  unites  perfectly  the  nature  of  the  two  sexes. 

Each  weakness  is  made  strong  by  some  corresponding  strength 
in  the  other,  for  the  truest  union  is  where  each  soul  has  precisely 
the  faculty  which  the  other  needs. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  WOMEN.  427 

There  are  some  men  who  have  a  faculty  of  making  themselves 
the  confidants  of  women ;  perhaps  because  they  have  a  certain 
amount  of  the  feminine  element  in  their  own  composition. 

A  man  never  sees  a  subject  thoroughly,  until  he  sees  what  a 
woman  will  think  of  it. — Old  Town  Folks. 

Her  voice  was  ever  soft, 
Gentle,  and  low;  an  excellent  thing  in  woman. 

— King  Lear. 

For  men  at  most  differ  as  Heaven  and  Earth, 
But  women,  best  and  worst,  as  Heaven  and  Hell. 

—  Tennyson. 

Miss  Wisk's  mission  was  to  show  the  world,  that  woman's  mis- 
sion was  man's  mission ;  and  that  the  only  genuine  mission  of 
both  men  and  women  was  to  be  always  moving  declaratory  res- 
olutions about  things  in  general  at  public  meetings. 

Miss  Wisk  informed  us  with  great  indignation,  .  .  .  that 
the  idea  of  woman's  mission  being  chiefly  in  the  narrow  sphere  of 
Home  was  an  outrageous  slander  on  the  part  of  her  Tyrant,  Man, 
.  .  .  the  only  practical  thing  for  the  world  was  the  emancipa- 
tion of  Woman  from  the  thraldom  of  her  Tyrant,  Man. — Bleak 
House. 

If,  in  the  providence  of  God,  women  are  called  to  preach ;  if 
they  show  that  they  are  fitted  for  the  work ;  if  mankind  are  called 
to  hear  them ;  if  their  discourse  is  accompanied  with  power  from 
on  high ;  if  men  who  are  in  darkness  are  enlightened ;  if  men  who 
are  living  in  torpidity  are  inspired  with  a  new  desire  for  a  holier 
life;  then  the  Holy  Ghost  bears  witness  to  the  validity  of  the  or- 
dination and  of  woman's  right  to  speak. — T.  K.  Beecher. 

But  the  apostle  meant  well  enough !  Corinth,  with  all  its  Greek 
polish,  was  a  loose  place.  Men  kept  their  hats  on  in  meeting,  and 
got  drunk  at  the  Lord's  Supper;  while  women  took  off  their  bon- 
nets, and  let  down  their  hair.  Paul  acted  as  police.  The  ab- 
surdity is,  on  the  ground  of  verbal  inspiration,  to  make  his  text  an 
everlasting  canon,  when  the  reasons  are  so  shallow. — Radical 
Problems. 

Let  us  hope  in  a  coming  day,  not  Egeria,  but  Mary,  the  mother 
of  Jesus,  the  archetype  of  the  Christian  motherhood,  shall  be  felt 
through  all  the  laws  and  institutions  of  society.     That  Mary,  who 


428  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

kept  all  things  and  poiulereil  them  in  her  heart — the  silent  poet, 
the  prophetess,  the  one  confidential  friend  of  Jesus,  sweet  and  re- 
tired as  evening  dew,  yet  strong  to  go  forth  with  Christ  against 
the  cruel  and  vulgar  mob,  and  to  stand  unfainting  by  the  cross 
where  He  suffered ! — Mrs.  H.  B.  Stoive. 

In  the  economy  of  grace  there  is  neither  male  nor  female ;  and 
Peter  says,  that  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  be  poured  out  and 
your  sons  and  your  daughters  shall  prophesy.  .  .  .  Accord- 
ingly, there  have  been  in  the  church,  in  all  ages,  holy  women  who 
have  received  the  Spirit  and  been  called  to  a  ministration  in  the 
things  of  God, — such  as  Deborah,  Huldah,  and  Anna  the  proph- 
etess. In  our  own  days,  most  uncommon  manifestations  of  di- 
vine grace  have  been  given  to  holy  women. — Dr.  Hopkins  in 
Minister'' s  Wooing. 

There  is  a  beautiful  incident  in  the  ministry  of  Dr.  John  M. 
Mason.  Rachel  Ferguson,  a  colored  women,  advanced  in  years, 
well  known  in  the  community  as  a  woman  of  exemplary  piety, 
had  long  been  a  member  of  the  church  in  Murray  Street,  New 
York,  and  had  been  accustomed  to  take  her  place  at  the  com- 
munion table  in  a  retired  spot,  scarcely  observed  by  the  great 
body  of  communicants.  At  an  early  observance  of  this  commun- 
ion, and  after  the  prayer  of  consecration,  the  Doctor  rose  from  his 
seat  at  the  head  of  the  table,  and  with  a  solemn  and  dignified 
mien,  walked  the  whole  length  of  the  broad  aisle,  down  to  the 
seat  of  Rachel  Ferguson.  All  eyes  were  fixed  upon  him  when  he 
took  Rachel  by  the  hand,  and  led  her  up  to  a  seat  occupied  by  the 
more  wealthy  of  the  church,  and,  as  he  led  her  through  the  aisle, 
solemnly  and  tenderly  repeated  Galatians  iii:  26-28. — Life  and 
Times  of  Gardiner  Spring. 

The  feminine  element,  so  strong  in  all  men  of  genius,  was  dom- 
inant in  his  social  nature.  This  attracted  him,  as  has  been  several 
times  remarked,  to  women.  The  romantic  devotion,  the  untiring 
faithfulness,  the  grace  of  his  affection  in  the  nearest  relation  made 
his  daily  life  verdant  with  beauty. — Dr.  Channing. — Memoirs. 

Men  require  to  be  called,  women  to  be  attracted.  .  .  .  Few 
women  ever  go  to  Christ  through  the  medium  of  mere  doctrine. 
.  .  .  God  is  love,  and  by  her  superior  capacity  of  love  woman 
is  so  much  nearer  God  than  man  can  ever  be. — Ecce  Deus. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  WOMEN.  429 

There  was  more  of  the  woman  in  his  nature  than  in  that  of  any 
man  I  ever  knew — more  of  woman's  tenderness  toward  children 
and  sympathy  with  them —  .  .  .  All  dependent  and  inferiors 
loved  him — boys,  clerks,  women  and  servants,  as  well  as  horses 
and  dogs. — Andreiv  Jackson. — Paxton's  Life. 

He  was  one  of  those  in  whom  a  feminine  soul  incarnates  itself 
in  a  masculine  body.  The  feminine  principle  in  human  nature, 
.  .  .  is  that  which  leads  heavenward.  There  is  a  sex  in  souls 
as  well  as  in  bodies  and  they  do  not  always  coincide. 

.  .  .  Lessing  said,  that  nature  intended  woman  to  be  her 
masterpiece,  but  she  made  a  mistake  in  the  clay,  and  took  it  a 
little  soft. — Hedge  on  Channing. 

That  none  can  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven  without  becoming 
a  little  child^ — guileless  and  single-minded,  is  a  sentiment  long 
well-known.  But  behind  and  after  this,  there  is  a  mystery  re- 
vealed to  but  few,  which,  thou,  O  reader!  must  take  to  heart: 
namely,  if  thy  soul  is  to  go  on  into  higher  spiritual  blessedness, 
it  must  become  a  woman ;  yes,  however  manly  thou  be  among 
men.  It  must  learn  to  love  being  dependent;  and  must  lean  on 
God  not  solely  from  distress  or  alarm,  but  because  it  does  not  like 
independence  or  loneliness. — F.  W.  Ne-wman. 

The  Egyptian  was  the  husband  of  one  wife,  and  she  was  re- 
garded as  the  honored  mistress  of  the  household ;  the  companion, 
not  the  slave  or  inferior  of  the  man.  In  sculptures  and  paintings 
she  is  constantly  seen  sitting  by  his  side;  she  joins  him  in  receiv- 
ing and  welcoming  guests,  and  freely  takes  her  part  in  the  occu- 
pations and  enjoyments  of  social  life.  In  the  tombs  and  memorial 
chambers  of  the  dead,  husband  and  wife  are  still  represented  side 
by  side. —  The  Pharaohs  and  their  Peofle. — By  E.  Berkley.  Lon- 
don^ 1884. 

In  Plutarch  the  wife  is  represented  not  as  the  mere  housekeeper 
or  as  the  chief  slave  of  her  husband,  but  as  his  equal  and  as  his 
companion . — Lecky. 

Ardd  ha-Nari^  or  incarnation  of  Brahma,  who  is  represented  in 
sculptures  as  combining  in  himself  the  male  and  female  organ- 
isms.—  The  Keys  of  the  Creeds. 

Nearly  all  the  Syrian,  Egyptian  and  Italian  gods  have  a 
double  aspect,  as  well  as  Brahma,  and,  in  the  esoteric  doctrine  of 


430  THE   CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

the  Cabala,  even  Jehovah,  whose  female  aspect  is  represented  by 
the  "  Shekinah." 

In  the  noblest  men  of  history  there  has  often  been  noticed 
something  feminine,  a  gentleness  which  is  not  akin  to  weakness. 
— T/ie  Religion  Sent. — D.  G.  Brinton. 

"  The  rights  of  women!     What  are  they? 
The  right  to  labor  and  to  pray ; 
The  right  to  comfort  in  distress ; 
The  right,  when  others  curse,  to  bless ; 
The  right  to  love,  when  others  scorn ; 
The  right  to  comfort  all  who  mourn  ; 
The  right  to  shed  new  joy  on  earth ; 
The  right  to  feel  the  soul's  high  worth; 
The  right  to  lead  the  soul  to  God, 
Along  the  path  her  Saviour  trod, — 
The  path  of  meekness  and  of  love, 
The  path  of  faith  that  leads  above, 
The  path  of  patience  under  wTong, 
The  path  in  w'hich  the  weak  grow  strong, — 
Such, — woman's  right,  and  God  will  bless 
And  grant  support,  or  give  success." 

I  used  to  think  there  were  instructions  in  the  letters  of  the 
apostle  Paul  to  the  churches  that  might  be  needed  then,  but  were 
hardly  suited  to  our  day.  But  the  very  things — special  and  pri- 
vate instructions  in  family  duties,  to  husbands  and  wives — are  just 
what  are  needed  now.  There  are  too  many  women  who  are  as- 
suming too  much,  who  forget  the  meaning  and  significance  of 
God's  ordinance  of  marriage,  who  forget  or  wilfully  ignore  their 
marriage  vows.  It  is  making  untold  misery  in  families,  and  these 
mistaken  women  w^ill  know  some  day,  in  this  world  or  the  next, 
that  hidden  evils  are  sometimes  hidden  sins.  Also,  how  is  it  that 
so  many  who  profess  to  be  God's  people,  are  training  up  no  child- 
ren to  come  after  them  in  the  way  of  life,  and  so  far  leaving  our 
fair  inheritance  to  be  devoured  by  strangers.''  There  are  parts  of 
the  epistles  which  it  would  be  well  to  read,  mark  and  inwardly 
digest. — Cor.  of  Advocate  and  Guardian. 

PRE-NATAL   INFANTICIDE. 

"  Why  dost  thou  call  me — call  me  low.-* 
Why  do  I  hear  thee,  when  I  know 
That  thou  art  dead  beneath  the  sod. 
And  thy  dear  Soul  at  rest  with  God? 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  WOMEN.  431 

/  hear  thee  sobbing  tinder  the  sod^ 

And  I  thought  thy  Soul  at  home  -with  GodP — 

Oh!  it  was  a  weird,  weird  sight 

To  see  that  Lady  in  mournful  plight, 

Holding  the  Babe  so  blue  and  thin — 

A  span-long  Babe  of  bones  and  skin  ; 

And  it  looked  in  her  face,  and  moaned  and  sobbed: 

"  O  cruel  Mother!  my  Soul  is  robbed — 

Robbed  of  the  Life  that  mine  should  be — 

Robbed  of  the  Soul  God  meant  for  me : 
I  lie  in  the  grave,  and  weep  and  sigh — 
Alas  that  an  Unborn  Babe  should  die  I " 

"  Now  hold  thy  peace :  how  should  it  be 

That  I  have  wrong-ed  aught  in  thee? 

Oh !  cease  to  call  me  through  the  gloom — 

Lie  down  and  rest  in  thy  little  tomb." — 

— "  I  may  not  rest — I  may  not  sleep ; 

I  have  no  Soul,  dear  God,  to  keep ; 

I  have  no  sin  to  be  forgiven — 

I  have  no  sin  to  bar  from  Heaven. 

I  sit  me  down  at  Heaven's  gate. 

And  for  its  opening  watch  and  wait ; 

I  see  young  children  passing  through. 

And  but  for  thee,  I  might  pass  too ! 

An  Earth-child  now,  by  wild  winds  tossed, 

Oh!  give  me  back  the  dear  Soul  lost: 

"Ah!  thou  wilt  go  to  Heaven's  gate. 

Where  such  as  I  must  watch  and  wait; 

And  the  pure  Angels,  seeing  me. 

Will  know  the  sin  that  blackens  thee. 

I  have,  no  Soul — I  knew  no  Life — 

Unwilling  Mother!   faithless  Wife! 

And  all  my  comfort,  all  my  rest, 

Are  thus  to  lie  upon  thy  breast ; 

And  I  must  call  thee,  call  thee  here, 

If  I  perchance  may  win  a  tear — 

A  Mother's  love — a  Mother's  kiss — 

In  place  of  Heaven's  eternal  bliss. 

Hark!  lay  me  in  my  damp,  cold  bed: 

I  hear  the  bird  sing  overhead, 
And  I  must  into  darkness  creep, 
And  with  the  glowworm  wake  and  sleep." 

, — Extract  frotn  the  Defrauded  Soul. 


CHAPTEE  IX. 


THE  SCRIPTURE  AND  THE  PRINT. 

Thej  that  handle  the  pen  of  the  writer. — Judges  v:  i^. 

How  didst  thou  write  all  these  words  at  his  mouth?  .  .  lie 
pronounced  all  these  w^ords  unto  me  with  his  mouth,  and  I  wrote 
them  with  ink  in  the  book. — Jer.  xxxvi:  iy-i8. 

This  shall  be  written  for  the  generation  to  come. — Ps.  cii:  i8^ 
I  Samuel  x:  2_S. 

According  to  the  revelation  of  the  mystery  which  has  been 
kept  in  silence  through  times  eternal,  but  now  is  manifested,  and 
through  the  Scriptures  of  the  prophets,  according  to  the  com- 
mandment of  the  eternal  God,  is  made  known  unto  all  the  na- 
tions, unto  obedience  to  the  izMOcv.—Rom.  xvi:  2^-26. 

Every  Scripture — God-inspired  is  indeed  profitable  for  teaching, 
for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  culture  in  righteousness. — //  Twi. 
Hi:  16. 

Write  the  things  which  thou  hast  seen,  and  the  things  which 
are,  and  the  things  which  shall  be  hereafter. — Rev.  i:  ig. 

What  thou  seest  write  in  a  book,  and  send  to  the  seven  churches. 
— Rev.  t:  II. 

iv  Ypa<pal<:  dyiaK;. — Rom.  i:  2.  xa  Upd  ypd/x/xara. — //  Ttm. 
tit:  ij. 

Scripta  Litera  manent. 

A  specification  of  Christian  instrumentalities  would 
be  very  incomplete,  which  did  not  include  scriptures 
of  divine  or  human  dictation,  and  their  Jimitless  re- 
duplication in  the  print. 

In  the  term  scripture  are  included  all  written  ex- 
position and  advocacy  of  truth, — the  book,  the  treatise, 

(433) 


THE  SPEECH  AND  ITS  PRINT.  433 

the  essay,  the  tract  and  the  editorial,  scientific  state- 
ments and  discussions,  embodied  creations  of  the 
imagination, — the  poem,  the  story  and  the  parable. 
By  a  lawful  extension  of  application,  the  realization 
of  beautiful  ideals  in  architecture,  sculpture  and 
painting, — material  combination  and  manipulation  of 
physical  forces  wrought  and  illustrated  in  mechanical 
inventions,  implements  and  machinery  for  helpful 
use, — as,  for  instance,  the  engine  as  motor  through 
steam  or  electricity,  might  be  included.  They  as  well 
as  language  are  representatives  of  truth  or  error, 
virtue  or  vice,  for  useful  or  pernicious  purposes — in 
condensed  and  compact  form. 

The  preparation  presupposes  the  exactest  thought, 
the  nicest  discrimination,  the  soundest  reasoning,  the 
ju&test  sentiment,  the  precisest  word,  sentence  and 
phrase,  with  the  best  collocation  of  which  the  elabo- 
rating mind  is  capable. 

The  speech  has  an  immediate  effect  upon  hearers, 
which  report  of  it  in  print  cannot  have  on  readers, — 
by  tone  and  inflection,  the  glance  of  an  eye,  the  quiv- 
ering of  a  muscle,  the  facade  of  an  expression, — ges- 
ture, posture  and  action,  with  the  auxiliary  forces  of 
circumstance  and  occasion, — driving  through  the  re- 
cipient mind  and  heart  the  verbally  embodied  thought, 
sentiment  and  logic.  But  all  these  incidents  of 
speech  not  translatable  into  language,  not  reportable 
at  all,  even  the  winged  words  themselves  are  fugitive 
in  memory.  The  print  of  it  continues  to  move  read- 
ers in  all  time.  The  voice  of  the  speaker,  though 
eternally  hushed,  is  ever  made  spiritually  vocal  in 

28 


434  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

thought  for  the  charm  and  profit  of  mankind.  "  A 
book  is  the  only  immortality,"  somewhat  sadly  said 
the  brilliant  Kufus  Choate,  as  he  remembered  his 
transient  efforts  at  the  bar,  in  political  and  legislative 
life. 

True:  the  Spirit  seems  to  pervade  hearts  most 
readily  through  the  extempore  prayer  and  the  oral 
discourse, — urging  and  appealing  with  unutterable 
request,  irresistible  persuasion.  With  like  pungency 
truth  may  be  accompanied  when  read, — its  thought, 
its  logic,  its  sentiment,  its  homily,  its  pathos  be  riv- 
eted through  the  apprehending  soul  as  with  bolts  of 
steel.  The  Word  of  God  Spiritually  wielded  is 
living  and  energic;  sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword; 
piercing  even  to  the  sundering  of  soul  and  spirit, 
of  joints  and  marrow;  discerning  the  thoughts  and 
intents  of  the  heart.     Heb.  iv:]2. 

The  substance  of  Paul's  argument,  Peter's  ha-» 
rangue,  Stephen's  arraignment,  the  mysticism  of 
John,  the  homily  of  James  remain  as  they  were  re- 
ported by  themselves  or  hearers.  The  aroma  of  de- 
livery, the  flavor  of  circumstance  are  gone.  But  the 
gist, — ^thought  and  appeal  concreted  in  language 
remain  ever  to  stir,  rectify  and  purify  humanity. 

The  writings  of  Augustine,  Luther,  Calvin,  Hop- 
kins and  Jonathan  Edwards  fashioned  and  furbished 
modern  theology,  rather  upon  an  exegesis  of  the 
special  Paul  than  of  the  universal  Jesus;  with  the 
rigidity  of  the  Old  Dispensation  than  the  breadth 
and  liberty  of  the  New, — on  the  basis  of  the  Deca- 
logue than  upon  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

John   Bunyan  and  Eichard  Baxter  were  blessed 


THE  MODERN  POTENCY  IN  EVANGELIZATION.       435 

preachers  for  their  time.  The  Pilgrim's  Progress 
and  The  Saint's  Eest  are  in  their  eternal  round  of 
preaching. 

Felicitous  statement,  apothegm,  proverb,  pithy  say- 
ing circulating  through  a  people  by  means  of  secular 
and  religious  prints,  have  wonderfully  served  to 
fashion,  revolutionize  and  reconstruct  public  senti- 
ment. The  reported  obiter  dictum  of  a  jurist  has 
sometimes  been  more  effective  than  the  litera  of  the 
law  itself.  The  overthrow  of  the  Jesuit  organization 
in  Europe  was  attributed  to  Pascal's  Provincial  Let- 
ters. The  Encyclopedia  was  the  legitimate  product  of 
the  soil  which  ecclesiastics  had  made  prolific  in  cor- 
ruption. Broadcast  it  went  to  harvest  again  in  God- 
lessness  and  anarchy.  It  has  proven  difficult  to 
thoroughly  eradicate  the  thistle  from  the  French  soil. 
Ever  and  anon  it  thrusts  up  its  pestilent  head. 

If  Jesus  and  His  Apostles  could  have  emitted  from 
the  commercial  centers  of  the  Koman  empire  such 
daily  and  weekly  issues  as  are  now  sent  from  Ameri- 
can cities  and  from  the  great  city  of  London,^  how 
soon  would  the  Gospel  have  been  published  to  all 
men!  In  one  day  the  entire  new  version  of  the  New 
Testament  was  printed  in  Chicago  dailies,  and  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  the  issue  were  sped  in  a  few 
hours,  to  be  read  by  recipients  in  millions  of  popula- 

I.  In  1851,  more  than  12,000,000  copies  of  infidel  publications, 
640,000  of  them  purely  Atheistic,  without  reckoning  newspapers, 
were  issued  from  the  London  Press,  besides  29,000,000  copies 
of  immoral  publications.  They  were  more  than  all  the  publica- 
tions of  the  Bible,  Tract  and  m^ny  other  religious  societies  put 
together. — Theodore  Christlteb. 


436  THE  CHRIST   IN   LIFE. 

tion  within  a  radius  of  two  hundi'ed  miles, — some 
hied  to  every  city  and  town  in  the  United  States, 
and  to  some  English  reader  in  every  nation  and  com- 
munity. If  bits  of  biography,  fragments  of  history, 
and  a  few  epistles  through  the  Spirit  have  so  served 
to  cleanse  and  edify  humanity,  what  auxiliaries  might 
argument,  exposition  and  appeal  since  have  been, 
conjoined  with  bulletins  of  Christian  triumphs,  had 
they  found  reporters  and  the  printing  press, — the 
steamship  and  the  railway  to  speed  them  in  every 
direction! 

Where  there  is  no  press  at  all,  or  press  not  free, 
despotism  is  rank,  government  absolute,  society  sta- 
tionary or  retrograde.  If  a  people  is  able  to  organize 
on  a  popular  basis,  without  it  they  soon  pass  under 
the  yoke  of  despotism. 

Discussion  is  healthful  in  politics,  morals  and  re- 
ligion. The  thunder  and  lightning  of  the  press  wh*en 
needed  is  vitalizing  and  ennobling.  Light  is  cast 
upon  public  measures  and  official  conduct.  The  char- 
acter, fitness  and  conduct  of  public  servants  or  as- 
pirants for  office  are  canvassed.  Incapacity,  unfitness, 
untrustiness  and  corruption  cannot  endure  light — 
long  escape  detection.  They  must  and  will  go  to  their 
place. 

Public  opinion  sways  in  civilized  nations.  The 
modern  secular  periodical  combines,  voices  and 
wields  it.  "  The  morning  paper  is  the  autocrat  at  the 
breakfast  table."  When  not  wielded  in  the  interest 
of  humanity,  philanthropy  and  Christianity,  it  is  more 
to  be  dreaded  than  mobs,  pestilence  or  famine.  Its 
virus  pervades  and  is  transmitted.     A  half  dozen 


THE  EFFICIENCY  OF  THE  DAILY  PRESS.  437 

presses,  located  in  as  many  cities  of  our  nation,  have 
been  able  to  revolutionize  public  sentiment — to  com- 
bine and  to  wield  it  for  certain  purposes. 

The  leading  secular  prints  in  the  large  cities  of  the 
United  States  are  generally  in  advance  of  the  religious 
ones  in  them,  in  breadth  of  topics  handled  and  in 
freedom  of  discussion.  If  the  public  conduct, — even 
the  private  lives  of  candidates  for  the  suffrages  of 
their  fellow-citizens, — specially  of  those  who  have 
previously  succeeded  in  being  elevated  to  office,  are 
not  able  to  endure  scrutiny,  they  will  be  blown  away 
like  chaff  in  the  sirocco  of  a  single  campaign — con- 
signed thereafter  to  political  oblivion.  A  political 
aspirant  must  have  some  strength,  some  capacity  for 
the  office,  for  the  trust  sought, — some  good  repute 
morally, — have  been  tolerably  consistent,  straightfor- 
ward in  his  public  or  private  career, — free  from  ter- 
giversation, crookedness  in  speech  or  conduct,  or  he 
will  soon  go  down  in  the  sweep  of  the  merciless 
Reapers — the  secular  Press. 

The  condition,  financial,  moral,  spiritual,  of  the 
large  cities  and  of  the  counties  of  which  they  are 
centers,  would  be  hopelessly  deplorable  were  it  not 
for  the  daily  secular  prints  in  them.  They  are  more 
effective  in  the  detection  and  exposure  of  corruption, 
fraud  and  crime,  individual,  official  and  corporate, 
than  the  police  and  constabulary  forces  in  them. 
Their  reporters  are  ubiquitous  day  and  night,  vigi- 
lant, sharp-eyed.  These  cities  have  been  and  still 
are  receptacles  for  the  scum,  the  refuse  and  the  vicious 
of  Europe.  On  delivery  to  these  shores,  with  effront-^ 
ery  they  claim  and  exercise  the  suffrage.     Instinct- 


488  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

ively  they  scent  plunder  near  or  afar,  in  prospect  or 
anticipation.  Demagogues  —  political  self-seekers 
cater  for  their  votes,  and  unblushingly  purchase  them 
if  necessary.  Official  robberies  have  been  abundant 
as  private  burglaries  in  proportion  to  numbers 
and  opportunities.  As  fast  as  one  gang  is  exposed 
and  driven  to  their  "place,"  another  is  able  to  install 
itself  in  the  same  positions  through  the  votes  of  these 
ignorant  and  depraved.  The  main  reliance  for  the 
detection,  ejection,  perhaps  punishment  of  these  vil- 
lains is  in  the  Daily  Press.  Such  corruption  in  these 
United  States  will  continue,  so  long  as  there  is  unre- 
stricted suffrage, — the  supremacy  of  law  and  order  is 
not  maintained, — personal  liberty  is  not  inviolate. 
This  Government  is  still  on  trial.  Its  perpetuity  is 
not  yet  assured. 

In  all  conflicts  between  right  and  wrong,  most  of 
these  prints  are  quick  to  espouse  the  right.  Offenses 
in  or  outside  of  churches  are  not  condoned.  Ecclesi- 
astical liars  or  thieves  are  treated  with  no  more  con- 
sideration or  leniency  than  secular  ones.  Official  of- 
fenders of  either  class  are  driven  by  them  into  the 
pillory  of  public  scorn,  or  into  the  clutches  of  judges 
and  jurors,  to  answer  for  their  crimes, — hopeless  as 
is  often  the  prospect  of  a  just  result  through  Court 
trials — ever  expensive  and  protracted  for  the  suffer- 
ing people,  so  uncertain,  incomprehensive  and  indefi- 
nite is  the  law  in  application,  so  unscrupulous  are 
hireling  if  not  purchasable  attorneys,  so  absurd  and 
farcical  are  statutes  for  the  impanelling  of  a  jury,  so 
incomprehensible  at  times  is  its  verdict.  Therefore, 
these   dailies  should  be  properly  appreciated    and 


THEIR  INSTRUMENTALITY  FOR  EVANGELIZATION.    439 

strengthened  by  the  community  they  thus  serve,  the 
comparatively  few  mistakes  they  make  be  overlooked, 
and  the  personal  wrongs  they  sometimes  inflict  be 
pardoned  on  proper  and  possible  reparation. 

By  their  prompt  and  complete  reports  of  religious 
meetings,  by  the  large  space  they  devote  to  religious 
intelligence,  by  their  general  circulation  in  religious 
families, — a  circulation  very  much  larger  than  that  of 
the  religious  papers  themselves — representatives  of 
the  sects  to  which  they  belong,  by  their  ability  to 
reach  the  masses  of  the  people  in  every  direction  out- 
side of  church  membership,  it  is  believed,  they  are 
more  efficient  for  evangelization  than  all  the  religious 
hebdomadals  combined.  True:  evil  influences  are 
borne  with  the  good.  The  secular  print  is  a  chron- 
icler of  daily  events.  The  Bible  itself  is  a  condensed 
summary  of  good  and  evil  deeds.  None  seem  to 
have  been  suppressed  for  fear  the  record  would  de- 
file. It  does  not  give  details  or  salacious  embellish- 
ment. Vice  to  be  hated  needs  sometimes  to  be  seen. — 
To  be  shunned,  its  evils  for  time  need  to  be  apparent, 
and  thus  the  eternal  outcome  be  foreshadowed. 
Youth  cannot  be  prepared  for  temptation  and  indu- 
rated for  resistance  to  evil  in  ignorance  and  seclusion. 
Doubtless,  such  enterprise,  vigilance  and  assiduity  are 
remunerative.  Men  are  divinely  moved  to  serve 
by  conduct  in  life  for  the  transformation  and 
ennobling  of  humanity  through  various  considera- 
tions,— ethical  or  religious  impulsion,  natural  or  gra- 
ciously acquired, — through  the  stimulation  of  self- 
interest, — through  the  sway  of  both  in  equal  or 
unequal    combination.      "What  then?"  as  said  the 


440  THE  CHRIST   IN  LIFE. 

Apostle,  "in  every  way,  whether  in  pretense  or  in 
truth,  Christ  is  proclaimed,  and  therein  I  rejoice. 
Yea,  and  I  will  rejoice." 

Every  religious  or  Christian  denomination  has  its 
"organ"  to  specially  represent,  enforce  and  propagate 
its  peculiarities,  and  for  the  general  advocacy  of  truth. 
With  grand  and  noble  exceptions  in  the  largest  cities, 
some,  if  not  many,  are  chiefly  sectarian  exponents, — 
too  often  the  mouth-pieces  of  the  ruling  influences.^ 
This  is  a  necessary  result  from  the  fact  that  the  pat- 
rons are  chiefly  restricted  to  the  denominational  circle. 
The  periodicals  will  not  always  be  taken  for  their  in- 
trinsic worth,  but  because  they  professedly  represent 
the  favorite  sect  and  chronicle  its  movements  and 
progress.  If  they  are  conducted  so  as  to  displease 
"leading  brethren,"  or  are  not  in  harmony  with  their 
measures,  their  doom  is  only  a  question  of  time.  The 
main  hope,  under  God,  of  religious  progress  inside  or 
outside  of  the  sects  represented,  so  far  as  it  can  be 
attained  through  the  instrumentality  of  these  heb- 
domadals,  is  in  those  that  have  become  so  well-estab- 
lished as  not  to  be  dependent  on  any  class  of  religion- 
ists who  may  prevail  on  the  subscription  list,  and  are 
therefore  able  to  be  defiant  of  any  attempted  dictation 
by  them.  It  is  a  matter  of  regret,  that  there  is  not 
in  these  various  "organs  "  more  fearlessness  in  exam- 
ination and  discussion  of  the  measures  and  the  ad- 
ministration of  representative  officials,  as  is  charac- 

I.  There  are  multitudes  of  good,  sound,  orthodox  papers  that 
have  much  merit  in  them ;  but  they  carry  the  spirit  of  sectarian- 
ism^andthe  narrow,  selfish  and  oftentimes  venomous  spirit  of 
religious  contention  into  the  household. — H.  W.  Beecher. 


CANDOR  AND  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  PRESS.   441 

teristic  of  the  secular  press.  That  discussion,  of 
course,  should  be  temperate  and  just.  The  theory  of 
Christianity  requires  that  the  derelictions  of  the  offi- 
cial, as  of  the  unofficial,  should  be  corrected, — pri- 
vately if  it  can  be,  publicly  if  it  must  be.  But  the 
tendency  is  to  hush,  to  compromise,  as  if  fidelity, 
frankness  and  plain  dealing  were  not  always  the 
wisest,  the  most  expedient! 

When  such  periodicals  are  owned  and  controlled 
by  Boards  or  Societies  or  stockholders,  they  are  held 
or  gravitate  to  intense  conservatism.  Nothing  is  per- 
mitted to  enter  them,  that  will  disturb  sectarian  quiet, 
ecclesiastical  placidity,  imperil  the  treasury.  They 
are  or  become  mere  denominational  bulletins,  barom- 
eters of  the  sectarian  weather,  hurdy-gurdies  of  the 
officials  who  conduct  them. 

One  such  absorbed  during  its  existence,  in  expenses 
above  its  own  receipts,  some  $50,000  or  more  con- 
tributed chiefly  for  missionary  purposes  by  the  self- 
denying.  If  the  "organ"  had  been  devoted  to  strictly 
missionary  topics,  instead  of  as  a  medium  for  the 
ventilation  of  individual  hobbies,  political,  literary 
and  archaeological, — the  absorption  of  such  an  amount 
might  have  been  spiritually  economic. 

While  the  potency  of  sectarian  "organs"  in  their 
special  spheres  for  very  much  good  is  admitted,  are 
not  their  candor  and  independence  below  the  average 
of  the  sect  they  professedly  represent?  Is  it  not  one 
of  their  chief  occupations  to  ascertain  the  drift  of  de- 
nominational sentiment  before  turning  their  prows  in 
the  same  direction?  Doubtless,  such  discretion  is 
wise  and  commendable  for  such  purpose.     Are  they 


442  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

BO  etherial  as  to  be  inconsiderate  of  the  monetary 
question, — as  are  not  the  secular  prints?  Will  it  pay? 
will  it  damage?  Many  good  men,  as  well  as  good 
prints,  do  not  deem  it  prudent  to  improve  every  occa- 
sion in  contention  for  the  truth  and  in  standing  for 
the  right.  The  Apostle  Paul  would  have  proved  a 
very  unwise  editor  for  a  religious  newspaper. 

Besides:  some  of  these  weeklies  are  exposed  to  the 
criticism  of  being  conducted  excessively  in  the  inter- 
ests of  ministerial  leaders  or  officials  whom  they  fear 
or  court.  Extravagant  utterances  respecting  persons 
or  measures  will  run  through  the  circuit  of  "organs" 
from  Dan  to  Beersheba.  A  bugle  blast  on  the  At- 
lantic will  be  echoed  at  the  Lakes.  The  "regular 
correspondent"  at  each  of  the  sectional  centers  or 
large  cities  is  generally  a  genial  brother.  At  the  in- 
stance and  urgency  of  the  interested  parties,  he  is 
ready  to  shed  floods  of  inky  encomiums  on  the  heads 
of  self-seeking  aspirants, — it  may  be,  denominational 
idols.  Kev.  Dr.  Tomtum,  a  young-fledged  Kabbi, 
just  D.  D.'d  by  the  "Seminary,"  has  resigned  his  po- 
sition as  Pastor  of  the  "Jerusalem  "  church  in  "Great- 
town,"  after  a  most  brilliant  and  successful  pastorate 
of  perhaps  three  or  five  years — against  the  persistent 
remonstrances  of  his  church,  the  exceedingly  great 
regret  of  his  brethren  generally,  and  the  common 
lamentations  of  the  community  at  large.  It  is  feared 
that  his  like  will  not  be  looked  upon  again.  Erom  an 
imperative  sense  of  duty,  at  the  cost  of  much  feeling 
and  great  material  sacrifice,  he  has  concluded  to  ac- 
cept the  unanimous  and  unexpeded  call  from  the 
"Hallelujah"  church  in  "Big-town"— though  the  truth 


MISSION  OP  THE  GENIAL  ''CORRESPONDENT/'       443 

was,  he  had  angled  for  it — equal  in  all  respects,  if 
not  superior  to  "Jerusalem"  in  "Great-town,"  on  a 
salary  of  xfiOO  dollars  in  gold.  There,  it  is  believed, 
he  will  have  an  ample  field  for  the  display  and  still 
further  development  of  his  special  abilities.  Most 
auspicious  results  are  anticipated.  The  "Bigtown" 
church  has  great  reason  to  congratulate  herself,  and 
is  congratulated  on  the  treasure  she  has  secured.  The 
grievous  loss  of  "Great-town"  is  the  jubilant  gain  of 
"Bigtown."  The  "corresponding"  or  the  editorial 
greeting  is;  Brethren!  Timothy  (if  not  Paul  or 
Apollo)  is  about  to  come  among  you.  See  fchat  his 
"coming  be  without  fear,"  if  it  becomes  his  duty  to 
lamm  you.  Then  appears  in  all  these  weekly  prints 
of  the  denominational  circuit  a  long  string  of  resolu- 
tions from  the  bereaved  church  shrouded  in  sorrow, 
certifying  to  the  extraordinary  capacity,  sainthood 
and  past  success  of  the  pastor  who  has  left  her. 

Now;  the  truth  is  with  respect  to  the  majority  of 
such  cases,  there  is  entire  misrepresentation.  It 
may  not  be  intentional  on  the  part  of  the  genial  cor- 
respondent. He  may  not  be  cognizant  of  the  facts. 
The  draft,  drift  and  tone  of  the  statements  were  man- 
ufactured for  him  by  the  interested  shepherd.  The 
culpability  lies  in  being  thus  made  an  instrument  of 
a  vain,  shallow,  but  ambitious  brother,  in  giving  cur- 
rency and  sanction  to  statements  whose  accuracy  he 
did  not  carefully  ascertain  before  he  gave  them  pub- 
licity and  official  sanction.  Generally,  in  such  cases 
the  brother  was  compelled  to  resign.  Many  long 
months,  perhaps  years,  the  disaffected  church  had  as- 
pired for  the  termination  of  the  relation.     With  all 


444  THE  CHRIST  IN   LIFE. 

the  facilities  and  weaponry,  overt  and  covert,  his  po- 
sition gave  him,  he  fought  to  avert  the  end  as  long  as 
he  could.  It  having  come  at  last,  this  exaggeration — 
misrepresentation  in  the  denominational  Press  have 
been  studiedly  elaborated  to  cover  up  the  deprecated, 
in  fact  the  compulsory  resignation, — to  counteract  the 
damaging  elBPects  of  the  facts  should  they  reach  "Big- 
town,"  and  to  gi\'e  him  prestige  there. 

Real  intellectual,  moral  and  spiritual  worth  will 
not  tolerate  such  sycophantic  adulation.  It  prefers 
to  let  character  and  professional  success  herald  them- 
selves. What  can  be  more  offensive  to  humble. 
Godly,  truly  distinguished  men  than  fulsome,  indis- 
criminate, baseless  panegyric?  Was  ever  the  sem- 
blance of  such  folly  discerned  in  Paul?-^any  of  the 
distinguished  Heralds  of  the  Cross — the  dead  or  liv- 
ing since? 

Unpopularity, — want  of  success,  so  styled  and  esti- 
mated, in  a  particular  field,  are  not  necessarily  indica- 
tive of  infidelity  in  service  or  life, — of  mental,  moral, 
spiritual  or  educational  deficiency,  unfitness,  inade- 
quacy for  a  position, — oft-times  are  rather  the  reverse, 
— the  best  indication  of  the  possession  of  intellectual 
and  moral  worth,  and  of  fidelity  in  the  ministerial 
work.  What  has  been  the  irreversible  verdict  re- 
specting the  dismission  of  Jonathan  Edwards  by  his 
church  in  Northampton?  A  great,  good  man  does 
not  suffer  himself  to  be  unduly  disturbed,  long  dis- 
comfited by  the  judgment  of  a  fallible  church,  made 
up  of  unsanctified  materials,  or  whose  ruling  influ- 
ences are  worldly.  A  weak-minded,  vain,  superficial, 
secularized  person  may  be.     The  world  is  wide.     Op- 


THE  MIGHTY  AGENCY  OF  THE  PRESS.      445 

portunities  for  usefulness  are  as  wide.  "With  me," 
said  the  lofty-minded,  great-hearted  Apostle,  "  with 
me  it  is  a  very  small  thing  that  I  should  be  judged 
of  you,  or  of  man's  judgment:  yea,  I  judge  not  mine 
own  self,     .     .     but  He  that  judgeth  me  is  the  Lord." 

Besides  the  absolute  immorality  of  this  carefully 
elaborated  correspondence, —  ostensibly  from  some 
disinterested  party  afar,  and  of  the  titillating  refer- 
ences of  the  editor  himself,  they  are  in  themselves 
unjust  relatively  to  the  great  body  of  silent,  unobtru- 
sive, but  effective  Avorkers,  whose  existence  and  labors 
are  for  the  most  part  ignored  in  these  "organs." 
"The  noble,  silent  men,"  says  Carlyle,  "scattered 
here  and  there,  silently  working,  whom  no  morning 
newspaper  makes  mention  of,  are  the  salt  of  the 
earth." 

With  all  its  infirmities  and  exposedness  to  the 
dreaded  sway  of  the  vicious  and  self-seeking, — it  is 
evident,  the  Press  is  ordained  of  God  to  be  a  mighty 
agency  in  the  evangelization  of  men.  It  behooves 
those  who  aspire  for  participation  in  this  divine  work, 
and  are  pressed  with  the  realization  of  personal  re- 
sponsibility thereto,  to  avail  themselves  to  the  fullest 
extent  of  such  an  instrumentality.  No  expenditure 
of  money,  men,  graces,  gifts  and  culture  can  be  too 
great  in  its  employment.  The  Written  Word  is  the 
Broadsword  of  the  Spirit.  Christian  Periodicals 
ought  to  be  its  Scimitars.  Smite  mightily,  O  sturdy 
Divider  of  soul  and  spirit!  Flash,  O  Damask-Blade 
keen  and  fleet!  Consider,  O  sluggish  believer!  O 
laggard  Christian!  consider  the  foresight  of  the 
world,  its  intense  energy,  its  mighty  enterprise  in  the 


446  THE  CHRIST  IN  LIFE. 

use  of  these  potencies.  Ai't  thou  come  to  the  king- 
dom at  such  a  time  as  this !  The  thundering  engines 
that  drive  these  presses  roar  night  and  day  in  the 
service.  They  placard  the  earth  or  strew  it  with  their 
issues. 

He  who  would  reach  others  beyond  the  touch  of 
his  hand,  the  glance  of  his  eye,  the  sound  of  his 
voice, — and  the  millions  cannot  thus  be  reached, — he 
who  would  bring  the  pulsations  of  his  soul,  the  throb 
of  truth,  the  voice  of  his  Master,  the  whisper  of  the 
Spirit  through  the  letter  into  contact  with  the  life- 
currents  of  benighted  ones,  crushed  down,  unspeak- 
ably wretched,  despairful,  in  the  extremity  of  spiritual 
death  itself, — myriads  there  are  of  *such, — must  send 
them  the  Leaves  of  the  Tree  which  are  for  the  healing 
of  the  nations.  Let  them  be  sped  over  the  interven- 
ing oceans  fleeter  than  the  clouds  before  the  drive  of 
the  winds.  Let  them  drop  down  upon  them  thicker 
than  the  shower  of  autumnal  leaves  in  the  forest 


THE  LIGHT  OF  LIFE 

By  J.  L.  BATCHELDER. 

(i6mo.     pp.  388.) 


CONTENTS. 

Chapter  I.— God— a  Spirit,  Person,  Father. 
*'         II.— Scriptures— God-Inspired. 
'*      III.— The  Situation,  Past  and  Present. 
"       IV.— God  in  Christ— a  Necessity,  Possible  and  Probable. 
"         v.— Miracles— Credible  and  Rational. 
"       VI.— Revelation  through  the  Spirit. 
"     VIE.— The  Divine  Call. 
"  VIII.— The  Treasure  in  Earthen  Vessels. 
"      IX.— The  Esthetics  of  Speech. 
'*        X.— Fishers  of  Men. 
"      XI.— Fidelity  in  the  Pulpit. 
"    XII. -A  Holy  Life. 
"  XIII.— Prayer. 

The  purpose  and  spirit  of  this  work  deserve  high  commendation. 
It  will  prove  interesting  and  useful  to  many  readers.— C^icagfo  Tribune. 

The  reader  is  sure  of  meeting  good  thoughts  and  bright  sayings, 
and  of  being  in  the  company  of  an  author  who  thinks  for  himself,  and 
on  lines  which  lead  in  the  right  direction,  and  to  the  highest  results.— 
JV.  Y.  Independent. 

This  volume  is  a  vigorous  statement  and  defense  of  the  truth  as 
interpreted  from  the  Scriptures,  and  very  suggestive  for  the  thought- 
ful reader.  The  truth  is  strongly  stated  and  vigorously  defended  with 
the  collateral  support  of  scores  of  able  writers.— Boston  Zion's  Herald. 

A  book,  which  contains  much  interesting  and  helpful  reading  in 
regard  to  some  of  the  prof  oundest  thoughts  about  God  and  the  soul, 
which  have  ever  engaged  the  minds  of  men.  His  quotations  are  rev- 
erential and  purposeful.— CMcayo  iV.  W.  Christian  Advocate. 

An  eminently  practical  work  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word— not 
only  presenting  in  a  very  pleasing  way  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  but 
as  an  enforcement  of  those  doctrines,  it  discusses  certain  current 
questions  which  present  or  involve  the  authority  of  the  Bible  as  the 
Word  of  God.  In  view  of  the  semi-infidelity  and  rationalism  of  the 
day,  we  regard  the  book  as  timely,  and  can  commend  it  to  a  wide  cir- 
culation.—Cin.  Herald  and  Presbyter. 

We  have  examined  this  book  with  much  satisfaction.  The  author's 
own  thoughts  are  expressed  in  language  clear,  pure  and  vigorous.  We 
regard  the  book  as  one  of  much  value,  healthful  in  tone,  and  full  of 
profound  thought.— Cin.  Christian  Standard. 

It  is  a  discussion  of  great  religious  principles,  with  some  practical 
applications.  There  is  in  it  much  which  is  useful  and  commendable. 
— Boston  Congregationalist. 

A  thesaurus  of  valuable  opinion  upon  many  of  the  questions  most 
vital  in  our  Christianity.- CTiicago  Baptist  Standard. 

It  is  a  volume  of  more  than  ordinary  value.  The  author  has  gath- 
ered material  from  sax  unusually  wid?  range,    We  know  of  no  one  now 


THE  LIGHT  OF  LIFE. 


addressing'  the  public,  with  tho  exception  of  Jos.  Cook,  who  haa  used 
more  wisely  the  material  of  writers,  ancient  and  modern,  repreBenting 
the  sciences,  the  pliilosophios,  and  tho  theologies  of  almost  all  ages, 
than  hasMr.  Batchcldcr.  The  piihjccts  which  it  touches  are  such  as 
come  up  in  the  life  uikI  nucstioiiing-8  of  every  Christian,  and  the  ev- 
idence brought  forward  to  sustain  that  faith— known  as  the  common 
and  evangelical,  are  almost  invaluable.— C7iica(/o  Cong.  Advance. 

The  quotations  .  .  .  are  remarkably  well  selected,  and  very  in- 
teresting. As  a  collection  of  choice  excerpts  on  theological  and  homi- 
letical  subjects,  the  work  is  unique.— iV.  r.  Christian  UnUm. 

It  comprises  a  zealous  defense  of  Christianity,  and  a  most  elaborate 
exposition  of  Christian  doctrines.  A  remarkable  feature  of  tho  book 
is  tiie  grouping  of  complementary  excerpts  from  the  greatest  philos- 
ophers, theologians,  and  thinkers  the  world  has  known.  These  are 
properly  placed  for  convenient  reference,  and  they  reveal  an  extraor- 
dinarily wide  range  of  reading  on  the  part  of  the  author.— CVacoflo 
Citrrent. 

Is  a  very  enjoyable  book.  The  author  does  his  own  thinking,  on 
themes  most  important  and  timely,  and  fortifies  himself  by  a  very  op- 
ulent and  unusually  discriminating  collection  of  quotations  from  the 
leading  authors  of  ancient  and  modern  times.  We  shall  make  use  of 
this  book  for  the  enrichment  of  our  department  of  "  Memorabilia  "  in 
Christian  Thought,  etc.— Christian  Thought  (N.  Y.),  Jan.  and  Feb.  ISSr,. 

The  author  has  amassed  a  great  variety  of  valuable  matter,  and 
the  book  certainly  represents  a  vast  amount  of  reading  and  study. 
Some  of  the  chapters  are  exceedingly  valuable,  and  the  book  is  quite 
strong  on  the  side  of  historical  Christianity.— TTjc  Universalist,  Chicago 
and  Cincinnati. 

This  book  discusses  vital  questions  with  enthusiasm,  and  so  it  con- 
stitutes a  zealous  defence  of  the  whole  system  of  faith.  The  author 
displays  a  wide  reading.— Homiietic  Review,  N.  T. 

It  is  a  valuable  hand  book  for  every  student  of  theology.  There 
are  passages  in  it  of  exceeding  beauty  and  force.  The  general  doc- 
trines taught  will  commend  themselves  to  evangelical  Christians  of 
every  name.— Reu.  D.  B.  Cheney,  D.  D. 

Is  a  perfect  thesaurus  of  pertinent  and  valuable  quotations  an^it 
living  questions  inreligionand  theology.  The  book  shows  a  wide  range 
of  reading,  and  a  careful  sifting  of  materials.  The  gems  are  threaded 
on  the  themeof  the  author  in  a  unique  and  coherent,  though  not  very 
systematic  fashion.  He  shows  himself  competent  for  severe  and  acute 
ratiocination,  and  yet  seems  to  prefer  using  the  words  of  others,  where 
they  suit  his  purpose,  rather  than  work  their  thought  over  in  the  furn- 
ace of  his  own  mind.  .  .  .  His  views  are  broad  and  liberal,  his  lan- 
guage burning  with  conviction.— Afissionarj/  Record,  St.  Louis. 

Price  $1,50,  postage  prepaid.  Three  copies  for  $3.0O.  To 
Clergymen,  $1.00,  Address 

J.  L.  BATCHELDER,  Publisher, 
817  Washington  Boulevard,  Chicago    111. 


